Press release: Cellular VoIP in the USA and Western Europe will
generate more revenue than all fixed VoIP services by 2012
September 2006 – By 2012, cellular VoIP services are forecast to generate
revenues of USD18.6 billion (EUR15.3 billion) in the USA and USD7.3 billion
(EUR.6.0 billion) in Western Europe, compared with fixed VoIP revenues of
USD11.9 (EUR9.8 billion) in the USA and USD6.9 billion (EUR5.7 billion) in
Western Europe, according to a new Sound Partners report, Forecasting the
Commercial Impact of Wireless VoIP in the USA and Western Europe, published by
Analysys.
Following the upgrade of CDMA2000 1× Evolution Data Optimised (EV-DO) networks to
Revision A from 2007, and the upgrade of W-CDMA networks to 3G Long Term
Evolution (LTE) from 2010, there will a compelling case for mobile operators to
migrate their voice services from circuit-switched voice to voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP).
“The capacity, cost per megabyte and quality of service of existing 3G cellular
technologies –including EV-DO Revision 0 on CDMA2000 networks and High Speed
Packet Access (HSPA) on W-CDMA networks – are not yet adequate to support a
significant move to wireless VoIP services,” notes the report’s co-author, Mark
Heath. “However, EV-DO Revision A and 3G LTE will respectively create the cost
benefits and new service opportunities that trigger the migration to mass market
cellular VoIP.”
Key findings from the new report include:
- By 2015, cellular VoIP will carry 28% of all fixed and mobile voice minutes in
the USA and 23% in Western Europe
Mobile operators will position cellular VoIP as a premium voice service,
emphasising quality of service and a range of value added features (such as
presence information, instant messaging and multimedia sharing) in order to
resist the erosion of voice prices
- Cellular VoIP will dominate the mix of wireless VoIP services in developed
markets, with VoIP over wireless local area networks (VoWLAN) and VoIP over
broadband wireless access (BWA) technologies (such as WiMAX) relegated to niche
roles.
According to report co-author, Alastair Brydon, mobile operators need to start
planning for the transition to VoIP services now, “Operators need to consider
the migration to all-IP core networks and the introduction of VoIP-enabled
handsets, as well as the evolution of their radio networks.” Operators must also
manage the threat of third parties that offer VoIP on operators’ own cellular
data services, as well as competitors that offer alternative VoIP services on
WLAN or BWA networks.
This report discusses the factors that will define when wireless VoIP services
become significant. The report also forecasts the impact of wireless VoIP on the
overall market for fixed and mobile voice services over the period 2006–15, both
in terms of voice minutes and revenues. The report considers the relative
importance of VoIP over cellular, WLAN and BWA technologies and identifies the
barriers and enablers to their respective success.