The Internet Calls: Cheap and Easy Way Of International Calls To Russia

The Russian telecommunication market is one of the largest in Europe due to country’s huge geographic area. It has extensive system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by modern network of fiber optic cables, domestic satellite system and widely spreaded cellular services. The modern telecom infrastructure expanded in recent years especially by regional players. In addition, the liberalization of the long distance telecommunication also paved the way for the growth of the industry. Way back in 2006, a new law passed in Russia related to long distance communications, which broke the monopoly of the older players. After that within just two years, the long distance fixed line voice services substituted by mobile and IP traffic when mobile operators shifted to the fixed line segment and simultaneously increased investments in own trunk network infrastructure to support rapid 3G traffic growth. The Russian telecom regulations specify that new players must build their own networks.

With such a growing maturity of telecommunications in especially urban centers, Russian operators increased their investments in smaller towns as well to maximize their return on investments. However still the coverage of smaller towns has not picked up its pace as the regional players are investing very cautiously due to long payback period. Among the internet access, 3rd and 4th generation mobile telephony grew rapidly in Russia. The three biggest mobile operators in Russia covered almost 85% of the population of Russia with their 3G services.

The advancements in the telecom infrastructure made positive impact on how Russia is communicating internationally. The quality of incoming and outgoing international calls improved along with the cost effective alternatives for calling on mobile and landline phones internationally. Among which using internet telephony also known as VoIP, the international calling to Russia become very cheap. The VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls use internet protocol to route voice packets over an IP network hence is quite simple and inexpensive way to make and receive international phone calls using just your internet connection. As a result, many full service VoIP players provide cheap international calls to Russia. Two such leading players, Skype and TringMe offers cheap calls to Russia, where 1st is known for making video calls whereas later is leader in making HD voice quality calls over landline and phone calls with one of the lowest rates in industry. The increased penetration of high-speed internet access with supported infrastructure paved the way for increased usage of cheap VoIP calls Russia.

In Russia, coupled with the technological advancements in the telecom services the market growth is further fuelled by investments of cellular operators and broadband internet access expansion. However in recent past few years, the market seems to reach its maturity, only the mobile and fixed voice service which were the main revenue generation for the operators, witnessed a stagnation or somewhat decline. The only growing telecom services in Russia in last 3-2 years remain the fixed and mobile internet access and pay TV services, of which the growth and value of these telecom segments not sufficient to drive the entire telecom market in the country.