Aah… China… Land of the Dragons; Land of the Dynasties; in modern times, the land of the fastest growing economy in the world; and now, in more modern times, the land of the VoIP boom. Ladies and gentlemen, China’s VoIP growth rate now exceeds its PSTN growth.
For those not familiar with the acronym I just used, PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network. In simpler terms, it’s the ordinary wired/fixed wireless telephone present in every ordinary house, and which – when compared to VoIP – leads to big bills.
The research was carried out by ResearchLinker– a market research engine – and the many-faceted results were astounding. I shall present the details to you in points so as to make the picture as clear as possible and reduce any chance of confusion.
1)The volume of IP calls in China was almost 110 billion minutes up to September last year. This is an 11.8% increase over last year. Do take into account that the statistics are only till September, and people just don’t stop making VoIP calls after September, meaning more minutes of IP calls than the actual data.
2)VoIP growth rate might be more than PSTN, but the latter still enjoys the greater market share. IP calls accounted for 43% of long distance calls last year. However, the share of VoIP in the long-distance market is expected to exceed the total long-distance PSTN and mobile calls in the next two to three years.
3)Like all other countries, China is also seeing an increase in illegal VoIP calls, which have been growing at a whopping 30% every year from 2003 to 2006. Last year, illegal international call volume was approximately 500 million minutes.
4)Traditional telecom operators have become more open to the idea of VoIP and a next-generation network, and are participating more actively in the construction of such networks. Additionally, business in China now have a deeper understanding of VoIP, and view it as an opportunity for combining voice and data applications rather than only lowering their call costs.
5)The maturity and decrease in the cost of VoIP equipment has also prompted small and medium sized business to adopt the technology, consequently increasing the sale and scale of VoIP equipment.
6)It is expected that the compound annual growth rate of VoIP equipment spending by Chinese business will amount to 48% in the next five years. They will spend 4.2 billion Chinese Yuan Renminbi in 2009. Last year, large VoIP equipment suppliers such as Cisco and Avaya accounted for the majority of sales.
7)As China yields to the World Trade Organization’s requirements, it will experience increased foreign presence, giving rise to aggressive competition in the country’s VoIP market.
And there you have it! All major, amazing facets of the reports spelled out clearly in seven points. Now I don’t know much about Chinese immigration laws, but if this trend continues, I’ll immigrate to China by hook or by crook. It’s just across the border from my country, India (whose telecom laws doesn’t even allow it to qualify as a free destination), and if this is the price I have to pay for getting good VoIP… so be it! And yes, I AM threatening you Indian ministers. Change the VoIP laws soon, or you’ll soon be losing an extremely handsome, extremely charming, and extremely intelligent individual to the VoIP-drain, I mean, the brain-drain.
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