Users are increasingly turning to Skype calls instead of traditional

According to the newest data from the research company TeleGeography released Tuesday, the amount of users willing to make calls via Skype’s Internet telephony service is increasing rapidly.

More and more users are wishing to call home from abroad through Skype, instead of making traditional calls.

Skype's technologylets consumers make practically free long-distance calls over the Internet on fixed lines. It is mostly used on desktops but Skype has made the move into mobile as well. So Skype can currently be pre-installed on some cellphones.

According to the Skype's data, over the past 25 years, international call volume from telephones have grown at a compounded annual rate of 15%.

Meantime, over the past two years the increase has slowed to only 8%, rising from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.

For comparison, Skype's on-net international traffic between two Skype users grew by 51% in 2008, and is projected to grow 63% in 2009, to 54 billion minutes.

According to the company’s data, traffic to Mexico, as the world's largest calling destination, declined by 4% in 2008 for example, and aggregate traffic to Central America declined 5%.

Privately owned Skype has more than 520 million registered customers who use the free Web service for voice, video or text communication. But in spite of its size, its revenue is relatively modest, at about $551 million in 2008, as the company has had a difficult time getting users to pay for its largely free services.

During the period of two coming years Skype targets to nearly double its annual revenue to $1 billion.