Keywords
Citation
(1999), "Telecom industry's expected growth translates into bright future for PWB industry", Circuit World, Vol. 25 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.1999.21725bab.009
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
Telecom industry's expected growth translates into bright future for PWB industry
USA
Telecom industry's expected growth translates into bright future for PWB industry
Keywords Internet, Printed circuit boards, Telecommunications
The number of people hooked up to the World Wide Web is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 percent to 250 million by the year 2000. That is according to Ken Bradley, vice-president of Nortel Networks Supply Management, who spoke about the future of telecommunications at the IPC Assembly Market Research Council (AMRC) and Technology Market Research Council (TMRC) Meetings on December 9, 1998 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Bradley was discussing the demands and opportunities that will be available to the printed wiring board (PWB) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industries due to the expected growth in the telecommunications industry over the next two to five years.
Bradley says Nortel Networks expects the number of e-mail users to increase from 71 million people in 1997 to over 830 million in 2000. The number of Internet host sites is also expected to experience dramatic growth, jumping to 250 million sites in 2000, compared to 18 million in 1997.
On the Friday following Thanksgiving, Amazon.com, an on-line bookstore, reported sales that were four times higher than the same date in 1997. Bradley says this represents a sign of things to come for electronic commerce; he expects 15 percent of all retail sales to be transacted electronically within five years.
To accommodate all these demands on services, Bradley says the bandwidth speed for transmitting information over the Internet is going to quadruple. "The demand for bandwidth is going to be very beneficial to members of the PWB industry. More equipment will be required to foster this growth in technology, which in turn will lead to continuing expansion of the industry."
This report is only available to AMRC and TMRC members. For more information, contact IPC Market Research Director Carla Wehrspann at +1 (847) 790 5317, or e-mail CarlaWehrspann@ipc.org.