The latest TeleGeography report shows a slow down in international telephone traffic while Skype shows acceleration as its traffic grew to 54 billion min in 2009.
The international call volume from telephones has grown to a compounded annual rate of 15 percent over the past 25 years. However in the past two years annual international telephone traffic growth has slowed to 8 percent, growing from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes in 2009.
Where international telephone traffic growth has slowed, Skype’s traffic has soared. Skype’s traffic between its users grew 51 percent in 2008, and is projected to grow 63 percent in 2009, to 54 billion minutes. Slowing traffic growth and the proliferation of alternatives to traditional telephone calls will present ever greater challenges to international carriers.
This encouraging trend is substantiated by emergence of newer VoIP / mVoIP service providers who have managed to stay aloft despite a tough 2009. The likes of Vopium, Fring and many others are growing as they provide a viable alternative to users worldwide.
International call volume and growth is represented in the following graph that provides an view of shifting scope of voice from standard to VoIP over the past 2 decades.
