Paul Brodsky

Paul Brodsky is a Senior Research Manager at TeleGeography. He is part of the network, internet, cloud, and voice research team. His regional expertise includes Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

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Recent Posts
Feb 11, 2025

How Do Wholesale Carriers Fit In the Global Traffic Picture?

Broadly speaking, telecom service providers have two ways of connecting traffic to a destination telco.

They can either connect directly with the destination carrier or route traffic to a wholesale carrier that connects to a destination telco.

Although many retail service providers, such as mobile operators, MVNOs, and cable broadband providers, rely heavily on wholesale carriers to transport and terminate their customers’ international calls, wholesale revenues are down 11% from ten years ago.

Let’s take a moment to dive in a bit and see what's going on.
Jan 9, 2025

A Bit Over-The-Top: What Is OTT Traffic?

The international voice market's trajectory is an inexorable downward spiral, and “over-the-top” (OTT) communications services are most certainly the main culprit.
Oct 1, 2024

International Internet Bandwidth Connected To Africa Has Almost Quadrupled Since 2020

Global internet bandwidth rose by 22% in 2024, continuing its slow but steady decline over the past few years. Total international bandwidth now stands at 1,479 Tbps, representing a 4-year CAGR of 25%.

Clearly, the pace of growth has been slowing recently. However, it varies across regions.

New IP Networks research tells us that Africa has once again experienced the most rapid growth of international internet bandwidth, growing at a compound annual rate of 41% between 2020 and 2024.
Sep 5, 2024

Hey, Who’s Using the Bandwidth?

To many people, the concepts of global network infrastructure and bandwidth markets are difficult to grasp. But to those who follow this sector, it's one of the most fundamental building blocks of the global economy.

You’ve likely heard that worldwide bandwidth demand is steadily increasing. A natural follow-up question: why? Who’s generating all of this demand?
May 8, 2024

Building Tomorrow’s Internet: An Update on New Cable Investment

Investment in new submarine cables has surged in recent years. Despite some fluctuations, new cable investment has averaged over $2 billion per year in the past eight years.

With demand continuing to rise at an exponential rate, the value of new submarine cables entering service from 2024-2026 is forecasted to reach over $10 billion.
Jan 4, 2024

Where Did the Minutes Go?

The year 2014 represents the peak for international voice traffic. International call minutes declined the following year, for the first time since the Great Depression—and it's been downhill ever since.
Dec 13, 2023

Traffic Talk: What's the Difference Between Wholesale, Retail, and Direct?

If you’ve checked out our International Voice Report, you probably noticed that the data carefully distinguishes between retail and wholesale traffic, and between wholesale and direct traffic.

What's the difference?
Oct 19, 2023

These Factors Will Influence the Development of the Global Internet

While artificial intelligence (AI) has been the most hyped demand driver in recent years, its impact on international internet capacity is not entirely clear.

A large amount of AI-driven demand is likely to be carried over the private networks of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta. Microsoft's infrastructure is also supporting OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

Here are some other factors that will shape how the global internet develops in the coming years.
Oct 12, 2023

Tracking International Internet Traffic by Region

Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the internet seems to have achieved a state of normalcy.

This can be seen across regions of the world. With the initial rapid traffic growth due to COVID-19 continuing to wane in 2023, many global networks appear to have started to return to more typical rates of utilization.

Let’s look at the numbers.
Sep 21, 2023

Total International Internet Bandwidth Now Stands at 1,217 Tbps

After a tumultuous 2020, in which the COVID-19 pandemic caused internet traffic patterns to shift and volumes to surge, network operators have returned to the business of adding bandwidth and engineering their traffic in a more measured manner.

 

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