That is a logical response. But one might argue that It isn’t so much that the OTT providers cannibalize or shift so much legacy revenue, in a direct sense, as that they “destroy” the legacy market and revenue stream .
Analysts point out that companies like WhatsApp will generate 35 percent of the total messaging traffic in 2016, but only eight percent of the revenues, for example.
Likewise, Skype in 2008 generated huge call volumes, but relatively little revenue. Skype more arguably does displace minutes of use. While international traffic growth is slowing, traffic from over the top applications and services is growing fast. TeleGeography estimates that cross-border Skype-to-Skype voice and video traffic grew 44 percent in 2012, to 167 billion minutes, for example.
The point, it might be argued, is that OTT apps do not so much “take revenue” from carriers as earn a bit of revenue while essentially turning a significant revenue generating business into a feature.
TeleGeography data does show that international telephone traffic grew five percent in 2012, to 490 billion minutes. In part, that is a result of more people on the planet using mobile phones.
Whether revenue actually is growing is the bigger issue, some might say. Surprisingly, it is very hard to answer the question of whether international long distance revenue, as opposed to call volume, is growing, remaining the same, or declining.
Most likely, international long distance revenues are flat, with higher call volumes helping to compensate for declining average revenue per unit.
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