International telephone traffic grew 5 percent in 2012, to 490 billion minutes, according to data from TeleGeography. The traffic increase was mainly due to international migration, the rapid uptake of mobile phones in developing countries, and steady reductions in international call prices—especially in the form of flat-rate (and even free) calling plans.
Nevertheless, recent growth rates are well below the 13 percent average that operators could count on to offset price declines over the past 20 years. While international phone traffic growth is slowing, traffic from voice and messaging applications like Skype continues to increase at a stunning pace, the report shows. The study also estimates that cross-border Skype-to-Skype voice and video traffic grew 44 percent in 2012, to 167 billion minutes. This increase of nearly 51 billion minutes is more than twice that achieved by all international operators in the world, combined.
Moreover, if Skype’s traffic were added to the volume of international phone calls, international voice traffic would have grown 13 percent in 2012, in line with historical trends. This suggests that although demand for cross-border communications has not declined, an ever growing number of callers have chosen to take telecoms operators out of the equation.
The pressure on carriers is expected to rise in the coming years. The report further indicates that, while Skype is the best-known voice application, a host of alternatives, including Google (Talk and Voice), WeChat (Weixin), Viber, Nimbuzz, Line, and KakaoTalk have gained popularity.
