Recent Reports: Virginia's CIT Examines State's Telecom Industry

Virginia is one of the most connected states in the country with 5.19 million access lines, 2.76 million wireless telephone subscribers and 218,808 high-speed lines, according to a report issued by Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). State of the Telecommunications Industry in Virginia analyzes the state of the national and local telecom industry and identifies the key drivers of Virginia’s success in attracting telecommunications companies, focusing on the industry during the latter part of 2001 and the first half of 2002.

The report states that, with the national telecommunications industry in turmoil, further consolidation is inevitable. Between March 2000 and February 2002, more than $1 trillion in market value in the telecom industry was lost, and more than 300,000 people in the industry lost their jobs. In addition, the telecom industry recovery will lag the rest of the economy by 18-24 months.

“The telecommunications industry will continue to have a big impact on Virginia’s economy, which is the reason CIT focuses on advanced telecommunications as a key vertical market and the reason we thought this study would provide valuable perspective on the changes that have taken place in the last few years,” said Louis McDonald, CIT’s industry director for information technology and telecommunications.

The State of the Telecommunications Industry in Virginia is available at: http://www.cit.org/telecommunications.asp