According to a study by Juniper Research, voice services revenue of mobile operators can potentially reduce from $381 billion in 2019 to $208 billion by 2024. This drop in revenue would most likely be triggered by users’ preference for over-the-top (OTT) services, which are more flexible and sometimes free of cost.
As per Juniper Research’s forecasts, while voice revenue of mobile operators will decline by 45 per cent by 2024, there will be an increase of 88 per cent in the total number of third-party OTT mVoIP users over the next five years.
Meanwhile, improved 4G coverage and a growing number of capable devices will boost the number of mobile video call users, partially offsetting voice revenue losses.
Moreover, revenue of video over LTE (ViLTE) operators will exceed $33 billion by 2024.
The report further highlighted that the 5G proliferation will generate new revenue streams for operators by enabling innovative use cases for VoLTE and ViLTE. In addition, high data throughput and low latency will propel emerging services such as RTI, remote control and Vo5G, which will have wide application across a range of industries.
The study also suggested that operators need to accelerate VoLTE launches if they want to benefit from emerging Vo5G services. With regard to this, establishing a 5G-enabled IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) infrastructure for VoLTE will provide a strong foundation for future voice services rollouts, which operators can monetise in upcoming years.
