A new report predicts there will be 8 million VoLTE (voice over Long-Term Evolution) subscribers by the end of 2013. Some three-quarters of those will be in the Asia- Pacific region.
The “Mobile VoIP Services and Subscribers” report looks at VoLTE and over-the-top (OTT) mVoIP service revenue, subscribers and deployments.
Also, the number of global OTT mobile VoIP subscribers is predicted to reach almost 1 billion during 2013.
“While Skype (News - Alert) dominates the over-the-top mobile VoIP space, the market is seeing other applications such as Fring, KakaoTalk, Line, Nimbuzz, WeChat and Viber gain in strength,” Diane Myers, an analyst at Infonetics Research (News - Alert), said in a statement. “But the fact remains that most OTT mVoIP providers are making very little money per user. In 2012, the average revenue per user was a meager US$7.13 annually. Since this alone is an unsustainable business model, most providers are turning to advertising, third-party apps and wholesale arrangements with traditional operators.”
Stéphane Téral, another analyst at Infonetics Research, added that when it comes to VoLTE, “the success of SK Telecom’s (News - Alert) VoLTE adoption—3.6 million subscribers in April 2013—has lifted our forecast: we now expect 12 commercial VoLTE networks and 8 million VoLTE subscribers by year-end, with about three-quarters of those in Asia Pacific.”
Also, the number of global OTT mobile VoIP subscribers increased over 550 percent in 2012 to over 640 million.
The number of global OTT mobile VoIP subscribers is predicted to reach almost 1 billion during 2013. In addition, the number of VoLTE subscribers will increase at 145 percent compound annual growth between 2012 and 2017. And OTT mobile VoIP and VoLTE services together may become a $16 billion business by 2017, the report said.
In addition to these findings, Microsoft (News - Alert)/Skype saw about 40 percent of all active users of OTT mobile VoIP services during 2012.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi