The popularity of voice calls via instant messengers increased 10 times in just one year.

Tele2 has found out that with the advent of voice messages, calls and video calls in mobile applications like Viber, popularity has phoned by means of instant messengers. Voice traffic of subscribers increased ten times in just one year (from June 2017 to June 2018).

Most often, users of mobile messengers make voice calls through WhatsApp, as reported by Vedomosti. The popularity of regular calls made on the Tele2 operator network dropped twice during the same time. Now voice messages and calls via Wi-Fi or mobile Internet make up 50% of the total number of calls.

The most active "subscribers" of instant messengers were residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg and Kazan. 63% of Tele2 subscribers from Moscow at least once a year made a voice call through an instant messenger. In addition to WhatsApp, Viber is also very popular.

As for other telephone operators, the VimpelCom representative also reported a gradual increase in the volume of voice traffic in its network, but no specific figures were given. The company “Megafon” told about the growth of voice traffic by 20% since June 2017.

The growing popularity of calls via instant messengers is explained not only by the fact that this service costs the user almost for free, but also by the fact that the instant messengers themselves are very convenient for communication. You can make voice and video calls throughout the country - 4G coverage has improved significantly since the advent of fourth-generation networks in Russia.