Revenues of cellular and other wireless telecommunications firms rose from $92 billion in 2002 to $104 billion in 2003, an increase of 14 percent, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.

     The report, 2003 Service Annual Survey: Information Services — Broadcasting and Telecommunications, shows revenues for the nation’s broadcasting and telecommunications information firms increased 2 percent, to $490 billion in 2003 from $482 billion in 2002.

     According to the report, other highlights (for employer firms) were:

• Revenues for wired telecommunications carriers were down 6 percent, to $223 billion, with fixed long-distance revenues falling 13 percent, to $53 billion.
• Cable networks revenues increased 12 percent, to $27 billion, with advertising revenues increasing 14 percent, to $11 billion. Expenses increased 9 percent, to $19 billion, led by program and production costs, which increased 14 percent, to $10 billion.
• Cable and other program distribution revenues increased 12 percent between 2002 and 2003 to $63 billion; basic programming revenues increased 10 percent, to $38 billion; and revenue from Internet access services increased 79 percent, to $7 billion. Expenses increased 6 percent, to $56 billion, with program and production costs increasing 15 percent, to $17 billion.
• Television broadcasting revenues remained the same, at $37 billion.

     Estimates in this report are based on data from the 2003 Service Annual Survey. They contain sampling and nonsampling errors. To keep the identity of an individual firm confidential, some estimates may be suppressed. Users making their own estimates, based on the survey estimates, should cite the U.S. Census Bureau as the source of the original estimates only. See <http://www.census.gov/econ/www/servmenu.html> for measures of sampling variability and other survey information.

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