Living with VoIP in the Middle East

IP telephony has been bad news for many Middle Eastern carriers, but regional operators also stand to gain from the technology, says CommsMEA reporting from VoIP World 2008 in Dubai.

With pent up demand for cheaper international calls and growing regulatory reform the across the region, the Middle East and Africa present a huge opportunity for VoIP. It doesn't hurt that there are over 130 million consumers using VoIP and international VoIP minutes already account for 21 percent of total international minutes in 2006. By 2010, VoIP minutes are expected to exceed circuit switched minutes.

Fuelling optimism in the Middle Eastern market is the rapid growth in Internet users and telephony competitive environments in Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey, Palestine and Algeria. Over the past two-and-a-half years, VoIP has captured 60 percent of the international minutes in the Bahrain market and about 40 percent of the revenues.

VoIP services offer immediate costs savings as compared to legacy technology, says one carrier, allowing incumbent operators to mitigate potential losses in a fully competitive market. Savings comes from less labor and decreased capital expenditures to maintain legacy hardware. On the other hand, a transition to VoIP can be painful for an incumbent carrier that may lose both market share and revenues. Staff reductions can also cause problems with unions.

For more:
- Living with VoIP in the Middle East by CommsMEA

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