International telecommunications demand

- The paper highlights the emergence of VoIP and wireless services as new means for international communications for consumers.
- We develop a model that incorporates these additional means of telecommunications and determines the key drivers of demand for international calling.
- The results suggest that consumers are most sensitive to mobile and VoIP telephone prices.
- The deployment of broadband has replaced the deployment of fixed telephone lines as a key enabling infrastructure for international calling.

The means by which consumers communicate internationally have changed dramatically in recent years. The emergence of wireless international calling as well as VoIP have created substantial new communications pathways and vehicles for consumers. This paper extends the focus of traditional international demand studies to incorporate these new pathways for international communications. It draws upon a modern database that incorporates both mobile and VoIP calling made over the 2009-2012 period between 25 countries around the world. Among other things, it finds that modern consumers of international calling are most sensitive to mobile and VoIP telephone prices and that the deployment of broadband has replaced the deployment of fixed telephone lines as a key enabling infrastructure for international calling. The results suggest that future studies of international communications should certainly incorporate these features.