OTT VoIP services to cost global telecoms industry $479 billion by 2020
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OTT VoIP services to cost global telecoms industry $479 billion by 2020

A new report from analyst firm Ovum suggests the global telecoms industry could lose as much as $479 billion in cumulative revenues by 2020 as the result of VoIP services from over-the-top (OTT) players.

This figure represents 6.9% of cumulative total voice revenues.

The report indicates that although revenues will continue to fall, voice traffic is shifting rather than collapsing.

The analyst firm believes carriers can maintain revenue through carefully targeted price increases. It also believes that through a focus on creating cloud-oriented telephony apps and maintaining the relevance of telephone numbers, operators can continue to have a place in the future communications landscape.

“Where operators have seen voice telephony as a service without a future, they have chosen to compete on price in an effort to eke out any remaining revenues from the market,” said Jeremy Green, principal telecoms strategy analyst at Ovum.

“However, taking such a pessimistic view obscures some important commercial realities and opportunities in the voice telephony market.”

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