Skype carried around 33 billion minutes of international voice calls last year, or around 8 percent of all international voice traffic, according to market researcher TeleGeography.
The growth in the company's international traffic -- 41 percent in 2008 -- has been remarkable, according to TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert, and has made Skype the largest provider of cross-border voice communications in the world, he said in a statement.
One explanation for the growth in minutes -- despite the fact that the phone has to compete with, for example, instant messaging -- is conference calling, according to Steve Blood, vice president in Gartner Research. Companies are putting the squeeze on air travel, and instead using conference calls to save money, he said.
