Over-the-top VoIP services like Skype are predicted to cost telcos $479 billion (€370 billion) by 2020, according to a new study from research firm Ovum, representing 6.9 per cent of cumulative total voice revenues. However, the study claims that although revenues continue to fall, voice traffic is simply shifting rather than collapsing. Ovum said that carefully targeted price increases are expected to be commonplace as operators try to maintain their revenues. "Where operators have seen voice telephony as a service without a future, they have chosen to compete on price in an effort to eke out any remaining revenues from the market," saidJeremy Green, principal telecoms strategy analyst at Ovum. "However, taking such a pessimistic view obscures some important commercial realities and opportunities in the voice telephony market." Release
