The demise of the traditional voice market is an issue that strikes right at the heart of the carrier market. It is a topic that divides opinions and sparks heated debate at each and every Capacity conference, and will no doubt do so again at ITW 2012 this month in Chicago.
It is also a subject that until now, has failed to have one clearly defined (albeit controversial) message for all members of the wider telecoms ecosystem to argue for or against.
As you will discover, our simple statement prompted some rather explosive responses from Tier 1 carriers and OTT players alike. Without giving too much away, one of the most intriguing suggestions was that the entire traffic from the international wholesale voice market could one day fall into the hands of a finite number of players, or indeed even belong to one utterly dominant provider.
This, I suppose sounds like the ultimate doomsday scenario for the traditional voice segment. Handling minutes was once the bread-and-butter for carriers, and for it to become such a stagnant market that only a few players are left standing seems nothing short of tragic. Given the way price margins are going, however, it’s entirely plausible.
We hope our ‘death of voice?’ campaign won’t end here. We encourage all readers to react to the comments, predictions and conclusions raised in our cover story by sharing their views online. Be it via capacitymagazine.com, Twitter or LinkedIn, we hope the ‘death of voice?’ debate will continue to live on for months to come. It is a question after all that will only go away if and when the traditional voice market does.
Alex Hawkes, Deputy Editor alex.hawkes@capacitymedia.com
