Cisco has released its latest global IP traffic forecasts - for the first time breaking out Australian specific data, which includes the forecast that, by 2015, Australian mobile networks will be carrying 149 petabytes per month as a result of data volumes doubling ever year from their 2010 level of just five petabytes per month.

In the latest, and most bullish, of analyst forecasts predicting the dominance of Android, Gartner is forecasting Android to command nearly half of worldwide smartphone market by end of 2012.

Worldwide telecoms service provider revenues grew by only 2.2 percent year-on-year in 2009, making it the industry's worst year in a decade, according to market analyst firm, Ovum.

An industry analyst firm is tipping better than 4.5% growth for the Australia and New Zealand IT services market during 2010. But India's set to do a lot better.

For at least 18 months Cisco has been talking about a global UC market worth $US27 billion, and Frost & Sullivan has just estimated the Australian US services market at $A608 million, but research firm ABI puts the global market at a mere $US302 million in 2008 and says it will be only $US4.2 billion by 2014.

Frost & Sullivan has estimated that the Australian market for unified communication services reached a record value of $608.7 million in 2008, driven by increased demand for cost-saving technologies such as video and collaboration, but has warned that the market is getting tougher for systems integrators as a result of mergers and acquisitions among major players.

VHA, the mobile operator formed from the merger of Vodafone Australia and Hutchison Australia, has overtaken Optus in 3G customer numbers, has the highest monthly per customer revenue of any of the three operators and is neck-and-neck with Optus on overall revenues, according to market researcher, Telsyte.

For the first time in its 23 years of existence the US Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is forecasting a 3.1 decline in the global ICT Industry in 2009. The good news is that it is also forecasting modest growth in 2010 and a strong rebound after that, driven in the US at least by increasing speed and penetration of broadband services.

The latest victim of the global recession would appear to be the seemingly unstoppable mobile phone sector if the latest market forecasts are to be believed.

Market Research firm Strategy Analytics says that global mobile handset shipments recorded their greatest decline in the industry's 27-year history: 13 percent between Q1 2008 and Q1 2009. IDC thinks the decline was even greater, almost 16 percent.