2010 Hot Markets: Accepting the ‘New Normal’

New prepaid providers will require in-store graphics at places like Walmart, where TracFone is setting up shop. Oppositely, more than 700,000 subscribers cut lines from the cable/wire services segment last year.

With heavy investments in "pipes" to the home, Verizon (+4 percent), AT&T (-2 percent) and other saturated connection providers will step up transit, outdoor, retail and direct response print to promote enhanced services. Comcast (+3 percent) will expand dramatically in content and into entertainment by acquiring NBC Universal. The largest-to-print segment of telecom, telephone directories, is in collapse as the largest provider, Idearc (-30 percent), is reduced to bankruptcy.