Over the past five years, Skype has become the largest provider of cross-border voice communications, according to a new survey.

TeleGeography, which researches statistics and analysis for the international long distance market, reports:

"While international telephone traffic continues to increase at a modest pace, Skype's international traffic has soared. TeleGeography estimates that Skype's cross-border traffic grew approximately 41 percent in 2008, to 33 billion minutes--equivalent to 8 percent of combined international telephone + Skype traffic."

The firm also noted: "Not all of Skype's traffic is a net loss for international carriers. Skype's paid 'Skype Out' 'service, which lets users make calls to standard telephones, generated 8.4 billion minutes of calls in 2008. Skype relies on wholesale carriers, such as iBasis and Level 3, to connect this traffic to the telephone network."