VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) has enabled many businesses to streamline their communications processes and lower costs. Consumers also appear to be on the benefiting end of this technological tunnel.
According to new research conducted by Analysys Mason, “more than 45% of customers with a smartphone use some form of instant messaging (IM) or over-the-top (OTT) messaging app in addition to (and in some cases instead of) traditional text messaging (SMS).” These services are not provided by customers’ mobile phone companies.
Analysys Mason quizzed more than 1,000 people in the UK, France, German, Spain and the United States over a period of two months.
Alarmingly for operators, some smartphone users are beginning to use VoIP apps such as Truphone’s VoIP application as their primary voice service; approximately 20% of VoIP users used mobile VoIP more than traditional voice services. A fifth of that number also said that they make VoIP calls more than normal calls because it helps to save them money.
Currently, VoIP usage on smartphones is quite small, but Analysys Mason believes that a trend is emerging and soon people could use VoIP as their main communication service:
“As more people use VoIP as their primary voice service, the danger for mobile operators is that they become relegated to providing secondary voice services, picking up the 30% or 40% of call traffic generated by users when contacting people who are outside their core calling circle,” said Stephen Sale, co-author of the report. “If this occurs widely, operators’ roles will be marginalised.”
Segmenting the users by age, the report also found that mobile VoIP apps have universal appeal, whereas other apps, such as Facebook or WhatsApp Messenger, do not.