U.S., South Korea Lead the Voice Over LTE Charge, Says Infonetics

The latest “Mobile VoIP Services and Subscribers” report from market research firm, Infonetics (News - Alert) Research indicates that the United States and Asia, especially South Korea, are spearheading the voice over Long Term Evolution, or VoLTE, charge.

In fact, according to Infonetics’s data, the number of global over-the-top (OTT) mobile VoIP (mVoIP) subscribers more than doubled from 2010 to 2011, to 98 million. The report estimates that about 40 percent of the global subscribers are based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Likewise, with the first VoLTE services launching in late 2012, Infonetics expects the number of global VoLTE subscribers to reach about 300,000 this year.

Meanwhile, AT&T plans to have VoLTE in place by 2013, and Clearwire announced that it will offer VoLTE when it launches its TD-LTE network by mid-2013.

 In a statement, commented Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research, "The U.S. and Asia, especially South Korea, are leading the voice over LTE charge, with Verizon Wireless, Metro PCS, SK Telecom (News - Alert) and LG U+ all planning to launch VoLTE services this year." In fact, added Téral, “South Korea and Hong Kong have already successfully launched LTE data roaming and by August, SK Telecom expects to have the Samsung Galaxy S3, the first handset to support VoLTE on their network. This is all good news for VoLTE, of course, but to put it in perspective, even with the VoLTE market ramping quickly here on out, by 2016 VoLTE will make up only about 14 percent of global mobile VoIP revenue, while OTT mVoIP continues to make up the lion's share by far."

The co-author of the report, Diane Myers, Infonetics Research's principal analyst for VoIP and IMS, said that in the crowded OTT mVoIP market, Microsoft/Skype (News - Alert) still dominate. However, according to Myers, although the tight integration of Skype with Windows Mobile 8 is important, the Windows Mobile operating system, however, remains a distant player in the smartphone race.

Meanwhile, the report indicates that independent OTT mVoIP providers like Google Voice, Fring, Line2, Nimbuzz, Talkonaut, ThruTu, and Truphone are working to differentiate from Skype and operator-driven OTT services such as T-Mobile's (News - Alert) Bobsled and Telefónica's TU Me by making their service easier to use, lowering prices, integrating social networking, and adding video features.

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