The latest report released by telecom market research firm, Telegeography, analyzes the voice traffic trends for last 20 years, which will give you enough insight to understand the dynamics behind global voice traffic market. According to the report, in last 20 years, international voice traffic has grown at a cumulative rate of just 14 percent annually, which peaked in year 1998 and recorded slowest growth in year 2008, due to global recession.
According to the report:-
- Total international voice traffic grew from 346 billion minutes in 2007 to 376 billion minutes in2008.
- Traditional time division multiplexed (TDM) international traffic increased 6 percent in 2008, from 267 billion minutes to 282.8 billion minutes.
- International Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic grew a relatively modest 16 percent in 2008, from 79.7 billion minutes to 92.7 billion minutes.
- Mobile phone subscription overtook fixed lines in 2002. In 2008, mobile-originated international traffic grew 19 percent, and accounted for 36 percent of total international traffic, up from 32 percent in 2007.
- Retail call prices have declined every year since 1988. The world average retail price of an international call is now less than one-fifth of the $1.20 per minute price from 15 years ago. Despite the steady decline in prices, retail revenues have inched upwards, as volume growth offset price decline
The report also projects its outlook for international voice traffic. In that:-
- International voice traffic is likely to grow 7-8{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} between 2009 & 2011, which is well below trends recorded few years back.
- VoIP is eating up traffic carried by traditional voice service providers and in particular, Skype users have generated 33 billions minutes of Skype-to-Skype traffic in 2008. The trend is likely to continue in coming years, where report predicts that Skype will emerge as leading cross-border voice traffic carrier in span of 6 years.
