Frost & Sullivan: Mobile Operators Should not Impose Bans or Surcharges to VoIP

 

A new research from Frost & Sullivan "Impact of Mobile VoIP on Next Generation Cellular Networks" recommends mobile operators - "Don’t fight them, join them" - regarding Over-The-Top  (OTT) VoIP application providers.

See press release "Mobile VoIP Poised to Become the Principal Transport for Various Access Technologies, Says Frost & Sullivan" - here.

Major findings:

• At end of 2008, approximately $605.8 million of mobile VoIP revenues were generated in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. This is expected to grow to $29.57 billion by 2015
  
   
• Many cellular operators have prohibited the use of mobile VoIP over their cellular networks, with some imposing a surcharge to avoid cannibalisation of their circuit-switched voice revenue streams ..Recent surveys indicate that nearly 60 to 70 per cent of the major European mobile operators prohibit or restrict the usage of VoIP over their popular mobile broadband data plans

The bottom line:

"When the operators migrate to an all-IP IMS network, they should drive innovative services such as multimedia telephony, high definition voice, integrating voice with context-based information about the user, and the device from a converged presence-enabled address book," concludes Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Saverio Romeo. "This will enable them to differentiate their services from mobile VoIP start-ups."

Related posts: 

• Is it Possible to Block Skype with DPI ? - here  
• The Economist: Data Mobile Operators Should Adopt "Smart Pipe" strategy - here