Wholesale telecom has powered international connectivity for decades. Once built around revenue from cross-border voice calls and interconnect agreements, wholesale divisions now face an industry transformed by data, digital partnerships, and next-generation services. Are wholesale and interconnect revenues still growing or slipping into decline?

Voice Revenue Decline – Wholesale’s Old Pillar Fades

Traditional interconnect revenues have plunged, with operators’ voice revenue dropping around 80% and SMS down 94% in the past decade. The rise of OTT platforms like WhatsApp and Zoom, offering low-cost messaging and calls, has radically shifted consumer habits.

As of 2025, OTT communication services account for over 60% of international person-to-person calls, decisively eroding wholesale voice margins. In many regions, voice revenues face double-digit annual declines and now contribute less than 10% of ARPU, down from more than 50% a decade ago. Interconnect settlements for voice, once a core revenue stream, have rapidly diminished, hitting operators who relied on inbound international traffic the hardest.

Wholesale’s Transformation – A New Growth Engine

Despite this grim picture for voice, wholesale telecom is expanding rapidly. The global wholesale market was valued at $470 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $1.74 trillion by 2037, growing at an estimated 10.6% CAGR. Data-driven services, cross-operator connectivity, and new business models are fuelling this shift.

Several factors support wholesale’s continued relevance:

Enterprises still utilize traditional voice for important functions, like customer authentication or regulatory notifications, especially in banking, insurance, and the public sector.
Regulators in many regions mandate interconnect agreements to guarantee interoperability and fairness.
International roaming, enterprise communication, and inter-network services remain essential for global telco operations.

Wholesale roaming is a bright spot, expected to double revenues between 2024 and 2028, driven by new 5G technology enabling real-time roaming analytics, better monetization, and improved subscriber experiences.

Diversification – Multi-Line of Business (LoB) Model

Wholesale divisions are no longer limited to voice settlements. The scope now extends across new business lines:

OTT Settlements: Operators are increasingly partnering with OTT providers, bundling digital subscriptions (e.g., Netflix, Disney+) with telecom offerings, which requires complex new settlement models.
Fiber and Infrastructure Services: Demand for broadband and enterprise-grade connectivity has led wholesale teams to manage infrastructure sharing, fiber access deals, and cloud on-ramps.
Enterprise/B2B Services: Wholesale now settles partnerships with IoT platforms, cloud providers, and digital marketplaces.
5G & Edge Services: Private 5G deployments and edge computing involve billing for metrics like latency and reliability, not just bandwidth.

These business lines can yield higher revenue per connection than traditional voice, transforming wholesale into a broader telecom growth engine.

Data & Digital – Wholesale’s Modern Growth Drivers

As voice shrinks, data dominates. Revenue share per user from data usage has grown over tenfold since 2013, and now makes up more than 85% of ARPU. Operators can monetize huge volumes of network capacity for cloud, fiber, and SD-WAN services, moving beyond traditional boundaries.

High-value enterprise connectivity and cloud services command premium pricing, and recurring revenue streams outperform legacy margins. Additionally, IoT connections are forecasted to generate $2 billion in roaming revenue by 2028 – a category that never existed in the old wholesale models.

The Digital Transformation Challenge

Transforming from voice-centric to multi-LoB wholesale isn’t easy:

Legacy System Constraints: Traditional billing platforms designed for voice can’t easily manage OTT, IoT, or diverse digital services.
Operational Complexity: Multiple partners and models mean complex reconciliation and difficult dispute resolution.
Revenue Leakage: Without automation, error-prone manual processes can result in substantial lost income.
Scalability: Outdated systems lack flexibility and can become bottlenecks as business lines diversify.

These challenges highlight the urgent need for digital transformation in wholesale billing and operational systems.

Strategic Digital-First Responses

Forward-looking telcos are modernizing rapidly by:

Upgrading to converged digital billing platforms that support diverse lines of business.
Automating settlements with AI/ML to increase accuracy, shrink labor costs, and minimize disputes.
Expanding into digital partnerships (OTT, fiber, IoT) as core revenue streams.
Leveraging cloud-based solutions for flexibility, scale, and cost savings.

Modern billing introduces AI-powered anomaly detection for errors/fraud and predictive analytics to optimize pricing and manage large partner ecosystems.

Real-World Transformation – The Subex Story

Platforms like Subex’s Partner Ecosystem Management (PEM) exemplify how telcos have transformed. PEM brings together interconnect, OTT, fiber, IoT, and enterprise billing/settlements, letting wholesale move from cost center to growth enabler. Results include:

70% reduction in manual effort through automation.
15–25% interconnect cost savings via optimized routing and automated reconciliation.
Unified platform handling diverse settlement models.
Improved partner satisfaction thanks to faster, transparent dispute resolution.

Operators have benefited by using comprehensive partner management to expand beyond interconnect and enter new growth markets.

The Future – Third Generation Wholesale

This evolution is dubbed the “third generation of wholesale” – a model built on ecosystem management, not just connectivity or capacity leasing. Modern telco wholesale now involves IoT, data solutions, cloud integration, and advanced analytics, moving telcos beyond traditional telecom confines.

Wholesale now plays a crucial, independent role in driving growth, handling everything from digital services to advanced enterprise partnerships.

Conclusion

Are wholesale and interconnect revenues growing or declining? The simple answer is that traditional voice interconnect is in steep decline and will continue shrinking as OTT communication expands. However, wholesale is rapidly growing, empowered by data, digital transformation, new service categories, and 5G innovation.

The successful telcos of tomorrow recognize the shift, modernize systems, and build multi-disciplinary, digital-first wholesale teams. Rather than retreating as margins fall, they embrace transformation and emerge as leaders in a broader digital ecosystem.

Wholesale’s journey is one from legacy decline to new leadership, with unprecedented opportunities awaiting operators who can adapt, digitize, and innovate.

See how industry leaders are redefining wholesale for the digital era!

Subex Limited

Subex is a leading telecom analytics solution provider and leveraging its solution in areas such as Revenue Assurance, Fraud Management, Partner Management, and IoT Security.

Wholesale & Interconnect Revenues: Where Are Telcos Headed?

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