Industry & Background

Wholesale telecom voice businesses provide voice termination services to other telecom carriers, service providers, and enterprises. These services enable voice calls to be completed between different networks and countries, allowing businesses and individuals to communicate with each other seamlessly.

Wholesale telecom voice businesses typically operate as intermediaries between carriers in different countries, providing interconnection services that allow them to exchange traffic. One of the primary sources of revenue for wholesale telecom voice businesses is voice termination services, which are typically sold on a per-minute basis, with carriers paying a fee to terminate calls on another carrier’s network. They also generate revenue by providing routing, billing and settlement services, managing the complex process of routing calls across different networks and ensuring that carriers are paid for the traffic they carry.

The global telecom market has experienced significant growth in recent years, rising from $2.87 trillion in 2022 to $3.04 trillion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.0%. According to recent industry statistics, over 800 mobile network operators (MNOs) are operating worldwide, providing services to over 5 billion mobile subscribers. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) states that global mobile traffic volume has grown from 47.2 exabytes in 2016 to 142 exabytes in 2020, a CAGR of 31.3%. International mobile call traffic also grew from 158 billion minutes in 2016 to 249 billion minutes in 2020, a CAGR of 12.2%.

The COVID-19 pandemic also drove significant mobile traffic growth in 2020, as remote work, online education, and increased demand for telemedicine led to an increase in mobile data usage. International call traffic growth is driven by increased globalization, growing international travel, and the expansion of international business operations.