(openPR) - Stuttgart, Germany — According to InfoCom latest release of the Mobile Traffic Quarterly Monitoring, mobile voice traffic volume in Western Europe is giving first signs of stagnation as growth starts to slowdown.

Total traffic volumes in the region increased only 2% (3Q09, YoY, in average) reaching 195bn minutes, compared to over 5% in the previous period. In the 5 largest Western European countries, the growth of mobile voice traffic volume was about 1%, as compared to 3.6% in the previous period. In some countries, mobile voice traffic is already decreasing, for instance in Italy, where although Italians remain by far the most talkative mobile users in Western Europe, traffic volume decreased by 2.3% as a result of subscriber losses in the business segment. In some other countries of the region, voice traffic volumes are still growing by 6%, though growth is declining there as well.

InfoCom Chief Research Analyst commented: “The reasons for this phenomenon might be multiple. For instance, carriers’ launch of wireless IP technologies, allowing voice over WLAN, or the introduction of mobile VoIP, to differentiate their offerings. And, the negative impact of the economic recession might play a role as accelerator. Though, the growth slowdown for mobile voice traffic is undeniable and it’s a sign of changing market dynamics”. As a consequence, mobile service providers will have to rethink their moves as of services and networks, developing strategies to oppose what most likely is materialising as the “stagnation” of mobile voice. As voice is still mobile providers’ largest revenue stream, the generated revenues are progressively coming under pressure, as subscriber growth rates slow down as well. As mobile data services gain momentum, mobile providers are expected to roll out more data applications, such as music & videos downloads, games, navigation & mapping as well as TV services in order to soften the decline of MOU and of voice ARPU. Applications related to the increasing popularity of social networks are also expected to become more and more ubiquitous.

About Mobile Traffic Quarterly Monitoring — InfoCom’s Mobile Traffic Quarterly Monitoring is currently available on a yearly subscription basis. It provides 4 times a year with a large amount of indicators — traffic minutes with breakdown between incoming and outgoing calls; between fixed, mobile-to-mobile (own network), mobile-to-mobile (other network) & mobile international; share of traffic type on total traffic volume — for 29 countries in Western & Eastern Europe. Mobile Traffic Quarterly Monitoring is only one of several Quarterly Monitoring Services that InfoCom provides. To know more, please contact us.

InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with over 20 years experience providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom’s independent and fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage.

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