SINGAPORE, 21 JANUARY 2010 – International calls can be very expensive and people search for alternative communication solutions to cut their phone bills in Asia and elsewhere. This theory has been proven by new data from TeleGeography that indicates accelerated adoption of Skype’s voice tools and a slowdown in the growth of international telephone traffic.
This decrease of consumption has surprised operators that were confident of continued telecom revenues based on the increasing call volumes all these past 25 years. In this period, the international call volume from telephones grew at a compound annual growth rate of 15 per cent.
The scenario changed dramatically in the past two years, when Asian and other telecom operators across the globe began to notice decreasing sales profit.
Impact of recession
The recession has affected the telecom industry too, according to TeleGeography, a supplier of data-driven telecommunications research, analysis and consulting services to carriers, equipment makers, investors and regulators worldwide.
The research firm says international telephone traffic annual growth slowed to eight per cent. Data shows that this traffic grew from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to about 406 billion minutes in 2009.
TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert notes the robust demand for international voice but says it is definitely not recession-proof. He cites the case of Mexico, the world’s largest calling destination, which was significantly impacted by global meltdown.
Success of Skype
Skype is one of the main reasons why traffic to Mexico declined four per cent in 2008, and aggregate traffic to Central America declined five per cent. Skype’s traffic kept on increasing even when international telephone traffic growth slowed considerably.
In 2008, Skype’s on-net international traffic described as connection between two Skype users jumped to 51 per cent in 2008 and TeleGeography projected this growth to hit 63 per cent in 2009.
"The volume of traffic routed via Skype is tremendous," said Beckert. "Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far."
TeleGeography predicts that in future, international carriers will have more competition due to more availability of alternatives such as Skype for mobile devices, and Google’s foray into the voice market.
