PR: TeleGeography Research Shows International VoIP Traffic Grew 80% in 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TeleGeography Research Shows International VoIP Traffic Grew
80% in 2002

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 10, 2003 -- A fierce debate is raging
at the FCC over the future of Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) telephony. At first glance, the ferocity of the
debate seems out of proportion to the reality -- retail VoIP
subscribers account for less than 0.2% of US phone lines. 
However, recent research on the international long-distance
market by TeleGeography, a division of PriMetrica, Inc.,
suggests that VoIP can transform a century-old business in
just a few years.

According to _TeleGeography 2004_, VoIP providers carried
only 150 million minutes of international telephone calls in
1998, less than 0.2% percent of the world's international
traffic.  By 2002, cross-border VoIP traffic had grown to
just under 19 billion minutes, about 11 percent of the
world's international traffic.  "While the FCC debates the
future of retail VoIP services, millions of consumers
already use VoIP to make international calls every day,"
stated PriMetrica analyst Stephan Beckert.

International VoIP carriers have achieved rapid growth by
carrying traffic on behalf of other long-distance service
providers. Consequently, most end-users are likely unaware
that many of their phone calls are traversing the Internet,
rather than traditional long-distance networks.

The two largest VoIP carriers, ITXC and iBasis, each carried
more than 2.5 billion minutes of international traffic in
2002, placing them among the largest international operators
in the world. "The combination of aging regulations and new
technology enabled start-up carriers to capture significant
market share in only a few years," noted Beckert.

                      1998    1999    2000    2001  2002 2003(est) CAGR
VoIP Traffic (Int'l)
(millions of mins.)    150   1,655   5,954  10,147  18,045  24,519 177%
PSTN Traffic (Int'l)
(millions of mins.) 93,000 108,000 132,027 146,095 155,165 166,615  12%
Total traffic (Int'l)
(millions of mins.) 93,150 109,655 137,981 156,242 173,210 191,134  15%
VoIP Share of 
Int'l traffic         0.2%    1.5%    4.3%    6.5%   10.4%   12.8%

Source: TeleGeography 2004, PriMetrica, Inc. www.primetrica.com

For more information, please contact:

Heather Tinsley
Manager, Marketing & Communications
htinsley@primetrica.com
+1 202 741 0066

Stephan Beckert
Director of Research
sbeckert@primetrica.com
+1 202 741 0042
 
About PriMetrica:

Founded in 2002 from the integrated operations of
TeleGeography and CIT Publications, PriMetrica's
(www.primetrica.com) platform of authoritative data sets and
objective analysis have provided clear guidance to thousands
of clients in over 100 countries. The company's
communications industry research delivers time-sensitive
statistics and insight on hundreds of markets and thousands
of service providers. PriMetrica offers individual and
enterprise subscriptions to online databases and reports on
subjects ranging from wireless carrier competition to global
Internet backbone traffic.

PriMetrica is headquartered in San Diego, California, with
U.S. East Coast offices in Washington, DC and European
offices in London and Exeter, U.K.

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