One of the biggest advantages to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has been the lower price for the technology. Companies and residents alike flocked to the offerings promoted by vendors so they could eliminate their reliance on the traditional landline and gain more control over their communications spending.
This perk and the fact that you can get so much more bang for your buck has driven demand and adoption of VoIP in the global market. Traditionally speaking, such demand would generally play into traditional economic rules and drive an increase in the price of the service. We haven’t seen this phenomenon emerge thus far, but will it be a threat in the future? Would you pay more for VoIP services?
This question may get even more attention as mobile VoIP continues to grow in popularity. WhatsApp recently announced plans to launch its mobile voice services in 2014, causing a number of people in the industry to sit up and take notice. The main reason for this attention – it strikes at the heart of voice, otherwise known as the mobile operators’ main source of revenue.
The key players in the mobile market have yet to show their hand in terms of how they plan to defend against the potential loss of revenue from mobile VoIP and softswitch services. Some have entered this segment of the market on their own, or have developed apps that deliver added value to the subscriber base in hopes of keeping customers around.
If they want to get serious about defending their territory, they could charge higher fees for any VoIP traffic that traverses their data network. MTN and Vodacom (News - Alert) are already prepared to launch such a strategy as both have already levied additional rates on VoIP traffic on their networks. When sought for questions for a My Broadband piece, neither operator would admit to plans to charging more for mobile VoIP usage.
While it may be the story now, will it remain the same in the future? Will operators try and charge more for mobile VoIP and softswitch usage just to try and preserve those dollars related to voice revenue? It only makes sense that they would want to maintain this area of their business model, but the consumer is moving in a different direction. After all, we also once paid for every character in a text and every musical download.
The reality is, there is not yet a clear direction, but economic models are likely to play a part. These operators need to make money and consumers need to stay connected. Chances are they will be willing to pay for VoIP, as long as rates are much more competitive than traditional models. But even that kind of invoicing may only last as long as the latest consumer trend.
Edited by Alisen Downey