Voice

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 carriers terminated approximately 257 billion minutes of traffic in 2022, down 5% from 2021. Wholesale traffic declined at an average rate of 1% per year over the past ten years, compared to a -2% CAGR for overall traffic. Wholesale carriers terminated nearly three-fourths (72%) of international traffic in 2022, up from 70% the year before.

Traffic to mobile phones in emerging markets has spurred expansion in wholesalers' share of the overall market. In 2022, wholesale carriers terminated over 87% of traffic to Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. In contrast, wholesale carriers terminated only 56% of traffic to Western Europe.

Wholesale revenues have changed only marginally from ten years ago. But let’s take a moment to look under the hood.

Today the i3forum announced the expansion of its successful Insights tool, which will now offer an Insights Light tier.

This extended offering is designed for smaller voice teams who require occasional market tracking and insight, while the flagship Insights solution remains available to large voice teams who rely on such market intelligence for day-to-day business operations.

Both levels of service are available to international carriers whether or not they are i3forum members.