There’s no substitute for hearing someone’s voice across the miles, apparently. But folks are unwilling to pay for the privilege. And that has made a perfect storm for VoIP provider Skype, which is officially the No. 1 international voice provider in terms of minutes of use.
New data from TeleGeography show that even though we have texting, IM, e-mail and other ways of communicating, international voice traffic is on the rise. In fact, so-called “cross-border telephone traffic” grew a full 12 percent in 2008, to 384 billion minutes. Unfortunately, thanks to ever-lower tariffs, revenue for the carriers from that bump remain, alas, flat.
Meanwhile though, Skype’s international traffic has soared. TeleGeography estimates that Skype’s cross-border traffic grew approximately 41 percent in 2008, to 33 billion minutes – equivalent to 8 percent of combined international telephone + Skype traffic.
“Skype’s traffic growth has been remarkable," said TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert. “Only five years after its launch, Skype has emerged as the largest provider of cross-border voice communications in the world.”
Before thinking that means that Skype is taking away from the network folks, consider this assessment from TeleGeography: Not all of Skype’s traffic is a net loss for international carriers. Skype’s paid "Skype Out" service, which lets users make calls to standard telephones, generated 8.4 billion minutes of calls in 2008. Skype relies on wholesale carriers, such as iBasis and Level 3, to connect that traffic to the telephone network.
