Fixed voice revenues shrink as VoIP swells

Traditional voice telephony is on the decline while IP services, favoured by businesses for productivity gains, are poised to surpass it. Revenues for fixed-voice services in Europe are set to drop three per cent annually, from $108bn in 2003 to $95bn in 2008, according to market researcher IDC. The drop is due to the rise of voice over IP (VoIP) services, the uptake of mobile phones as a substitute for landlines and growth of broadband which has a set monthly fee, IDC said in a recent study.