Legacy Revenue Still Drives Business Results in Global Industry

The most-obvious take away from the latest data on global telecommunications published by the Telecommunications Industry Association is the dominance and importance of wireless services. Globally, about 63 percent of all revenue, from all sources, is driven by wireless.


About 25 percent of total revenue is produced by fixed line voice services. Fixed network broadband produces about 10 percent of total revenue. IPTV is about one percent of total revenue.


What might strike you about the latest report is the non-existent discussion of the impact of over the top VoIP services. One reason might be that over the top VoIP actually doesn’t generate much revenue, one way or the other, for an incumbent service provider or an over-the-top app provider.


In 2010, operators made on average only $13.21 per user per year from mobile VoIP services. In other words, VoIP turns out not to be such a great product for incumbent service providers. That isn't true for all fixed network providers, though. 


U.S. cable operators have found that voice services using VoIP technology have been a major revenue contributor, in fact the fastest-growing new revenue source, in recent years. Growth in consumer voice has leveled off, though, so attention now will switch to business voice customers. 

Legacy revenue still drives the business, one might easily conclude.