Europe Wholesale Voice Carrier Market growth exceeded USD 5 billion in 2019 and is set to register a lucrative growth between 2020 and 2026, with a CAGR of over 11%. The total voice traffic across Europe exceeded 154 billion minutes in 2019.

Europe Market, By Service

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The Europe market is witnessing rapid growth in the adoption of wholesale voice and data services to address dynamic requirements for increasing voice traffic and high-quality roaming services. Wholesale voice carrier services have increasingly gained market traction amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as subscribers are making frequent and long duration calls. As per the June 2020 press release by Ericsson, the duration of voice call sessions increased by up to 70% during the lockdown phase. This has spurred the adoption of wholesale voice carrier services as telecom enterprises ensure they are well dimensioned to handle the unprecedented amount of call traffic.

The voice termination segment is expected to account for over 70% market share by 2026, driven majorly by the gradual shift of European telecom providers from traditional voice and data services to highly profitable wholesale voice carrier services. As voice termination includes significant charges for routing and termination of international calls across multiple network routes, wholesale voice carrier services are proving to be a profitable avenue for market growth.

The owned transmission network segment is set to attain a CAGR of over 10% by 2026 due to the increasing benefits of owning underlying cable and fiber infrastructure to transmit wholesale voice carrier services for other enterprises. As the prices for voice termination have dropped significantly, enterprises with owned networks can lease their network capacity for additional revenues, which has proliferated the demand for owning wholesale voice carrier infrastructure.

The VoIP segment is anticipated to register a CAGR of over 13% by 2026, which is attributed to the increasing use of VoIP services by subscribers in the region. Furthermore, the growing demand for VoIP-based calling to counter the higher cost of traditional voice calling technologies is a major factor driving the market. VoIP-based wholesale voice carrier services are enabling European telecom enterprises to abolish roaming charges whilst providing improved technology.

The consistent growth in the telecom industry of the UK is anticipated to fuel the wholesale voice carrier market. According to the statistics from The Office of Communications, in Q2 2019, the landlines in the UK reported 9.6 billion minutes of outgoing calls. In addition, the outgoing voice traffic through mobile phone exceed 40 billion minutes. Considering the figures and growing popularity of IP-based voice communication services, the growth in the telecom industry will fuel the adoption of wholesale voice services.

The market has witnessed several strategic alliances between key players for launching new products with added functionalities to maintain the revenue share and profitability. For instance, in May 2019, Vodafone partnered with Telefonica Deutschland to provide its wholesale voice and data infrastructure for Telefonica’s services in Germany. The partnership is expected to help Vodafone offer stiff competition to major industry rivals by penetrating the western European market. Some of the leading companies operating in the market include BT Group Plc, CenturyLink, Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG, IDT Corporation, NTT Corporation, Orange SA, Tata Communications Ltd., Telefonica SA, Telenor ASA, and Vodafone Group Plc.