Things have been tough for global telecoms companies in recent years. Phone companies such as China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, and Telefónica are facing – and struggling to reverse – a trend where prices for basic voice and data services are falling. And things are getting worse, according to London-based research firm Ovum. The telecoms industry will lose a total of $386 billion between 2012 and 2018 as customers switch to over-the-top (OTT) voice applications such as Skype and Lync, both owned by Microsoft.
The sharp decline will come mainly from lost revenue from international calls and roaming charges, which in some cases can cost thousands of dollars if consumers don’t unwittingly disable roaming in a foreign country.
“VoIP will continue to grow over the next five years to become the primary technology for transmitting voice over telecommunications infrastructure,” says Emeka Obiodu, an analyst at Ovum. “Blocking these services, forming alliances, or trying to crowd out OTT companies that use services like Joyn is not going to stop the trend.”
In general, the term OTT refers to the delivery of video, audio, and other media to a person’s device, leaving the Internet service provider responsible only for the data transfer. OTT is most often used in reference to video streaming services, such as Netflix, WhatsApp, Hulu, or WhereverTV, but it also includes voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, which is a voice-based service used for communication purposes.
According to Ovum, consumer use of VoIP OTT will grow at a compound annual rate of 20 percent between 2012 and 2018 to reach 1.7 trillion minutes. That translates to $63 billion in lost revenue for the final year of its forecast.
The increase in global demand is being driven by a number of factors, including improvements in the availability and speed of broadband networks, the increasing capacity and affordability of wireless devices such as smartphones and tablets, and the continued dominance of social media.
The current impact of OTT VoIP services on traditional revenue streams for telcos is just the tip of the iceberg, says Sandy Shen, research director for Gartner based in Shanghai.
“OTT chat apps like WhatsApp and WeChat are putting more pressure on telcos than VoIP services because they offer social networks that keep users engaged,” says Sen. She
adds that many Asian companies, including China Mobile – the world’s largest mobile operator with more than 760 million subscribers – have blamed OTT chat apps for their disappointing financial results.
Source: tro-ma-ktiko.blogspot.gr
