The international voice market's trajectory is down, and there's no reason to believe it's coming back.
Our recently updated TeleGeography Report and Database shows us exactly how fast traffic volumes are plummeting.
Here's a peek at our latest data.
As you can see in the figure below, 2015 marked a turning point in the market. This was the first time since the Great Depression that international carrier voice traffic declined, albeit by a mere half percent.
And it's been downhill ever since.
Carriers’ traffic fell by 4% in 2018, 6% in 2019, and a further 7% in 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a short-term rally in international call volumes in early 2020, but things pretty much returned to the new normal.
The trend continued in 2021, with traffic dropping by 6%.
Download the full TeleGeography Report Executive Summary here.
This analysis covers cross-border OTT traffic, wholesale revenues and traffic, traffic volumes of major carriers, global retail revenues from international calls, and more.