In the first hour of 2017, the total duration of calls in the MTS network decreased by 3.3% compared to New Year's Eve 2016. This is the first such decline, follows from the MTS message: a year ago at this time, MTS subscribers spoke for 25% more minutes than in 2014. On New Year's Eve in 2017, MTS recorded the largest decline - almost 20% - in Siberia, a representative reports operator Dmitry Solodovnikov, there was, however, an increase - 3.6%: it was observed only in the north-west of Russia. According to Solodovnikov, in general, voice traffic on New Year’s Eve is several times higher than on a regular weekday evening.

Many subscribers preferred communication via instant messengers, congratulations with photos and videos via social networks to regular calls, Solodovnikov explains the decline in voice traffic. Most of the load was taken over by LTE networks, he emphasizes. According to him, in the first hour of 2017, Internet traffic in the MTS network throughout Russia increased year-on-year by 86% and reached 170 TB. The largest increase in data traffic was recorded in the Far East and Moscow – by 110 and 120%, respectively. In addition, the MTS network transmitted almost 40% more SMS messages than a year ago, Solodovnikov reports.

On December 31, 2016 and January 1, 2017, VimpelCom subscribers spoke approximately 6% less than on the same days a year earlier, according to the operator’s message. Voice traffic during the first hour of the New Year was 8.1% higher than the highest hourly load of a normal work week, the report says. This year, the number of New Year’s greeting SMS has also decreased, reports VimpelCom representative Anna Aibasheva. But the average daily increase in mobile Internet traffic on January 1–8, 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 was 36%, she says. Aibasheva does not say what the increase was in the first hour of 2017.

Voice traffic in the Megafon network from 18.00 on December 31, 2016 to 06.00 on January 1, 2017 increased by 20% year-on-year, a representative of the operator indicates a different trend, but data traffic in LTE networks doubled, and in 2G networks and 3G – by about 22%.

On New Year's Eve, voice traffic of T2 RTK Holding (Tele2 brand) increased slightly year on year, says company representative Konstantin Prokshin, and in general data traffic over the New Year holidays increased by about 7%. He promised to provide more detailed data later.

According to preliminary data from TMT Consulting, in 2016 the revenue of Russian mobile operators will decrease by approximately 0.3%. This is partly due to a reduction in tariffs for voice traffic and, to a lesser extent, to its migration to social networks and Internet communication services (Skype and its analogues), explains TMT Consulting CEO Konstantin Ankilov. He doubts that the further decline in revenues will be sharp: operators protect themselves with package tariffs, in which the lost fee for voice traffic is compensated by the fee for mobile Internet.

Losses of Russian mobile operators from the use of Internet services by subscribers in 2014 amounted, according to analysts at J'son & Partners Consulting, to 15–20 billion rubles, or about 2% of annual revenue. And worldwide, according to Juniper Research, operators lost $14 billion due to such services.

The revenue of cellular companies from voice in 2016 decreased by 5-6%, from mobile access increased by 2-3% - this is the assessment of Telecom Daily CEO Denis Kuskov. The reduction in income is also facilitated by the flow of conversations to Internet services: voice traffic is clearly not increasing, he is sure.

According to Kuskov, in 2016 the cellular market will show slight growth. Operators not only massively transfer subscribers to package tariffs - they either introduce fees for various additional options (for example, for notifications of missed calls), or increase them: in 2016, the cost of many services increased by 50-100%, says Kuskov.

Cellular operators have lost their voice