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Aug 1
2010

Mobile VoIP – A Growing Alternative Carrier Market

Market research firm, In-Stat estimates the total number of mobile VoIP users will reach 288 million by the end of 2013. Of these, well over half will be associated with online mobile VoIP providers, under one-third will utilize mobile VoIP with 3G MVNOs or mobile operators, and 11% will be with WiMAX/LTE operators.

 

Recent research by In-Stat estimates that by 2013:

 

• Mobile VoIP applications will generate annual revenues of $35.2 billion

 

• While the EMEA region has more mobile VoIP related revenue currently, Asia Pacific will be the largest regional market in revenue terms

 

• Dual-mode handsets (Wi-Fi + Cellular) will be well over 400 million units shipped.

 

As many of the global cellular network operators loosen their grip on the “voice” side of their business and start to shift their attention towards data, the statistics quoted above clearly indicate an opportunity for alternative next-generation VoIP operators to capture smartphone subscribers. With the opportunity to offload some of the data traffic from the cellular network to home/business Wi-Fi networks, the cellular operators will be able to relieve network data congestion for high bandwidth services like video and navigation.

 

Mobile VoIP application quality continues to improve across all of the smartphone platforms, especially in the way they seamlessly integrate with the native phone's contact management system and with their support for both inbound and outbound calling.

 

This recent research highlights the tremendous opportunities ahead for next-generation VoIP operators to help drive their revenues, diversify their revenue streams, and increase their customer loyalty/retention through such services as:

 

• Primary and secondary line services with class 5 calling features and the ability to record voicemail messages to a common message store to allow subscribers to centrally manage all of their telecommunication services and needs

 

• IP PBX services to allow companies to utilize mobile handsets to extend the footprint of their business phone network for extension to extension dialing, automated call distribution, and reservation/reservation-less conferencing

 

• Call Center remote agent routing to increase the pool of available operators without the need to physically or centrally house them, while also dramatically reducing termination costs.