Telephone Interpreting Usage Continues Growing to Meet Demand for Multilingual C ommunication in Healthcare, Legal, and B2C Settings

Based on a survey of buyers of telephone interpreting (TI) services, new researc h from Common Sense Advisory shows interpreting resisted the recession from 2007 through 2010, with 96% of buyers stating that the need for TI services increase d during this period. Boston, MA September 23, 2011 -- It enables hospitals, courts, and businesses to c onvey messages to millions of people each day. Entire populations would be unabl e to communicate without it. Many travelers rely on this service in an emergency . The communication tool in question? Over-the-phone interpreting services, whic h make up an estimated US$994.18 million worldwide in 2011, or 3.40% of the tota l language services market, up from 3.26% in 2010. Findings from independent mar ket research firm Common Sense Advisory show the telephone interpreting sector i s growing and making up a larger share of the total language services market tha n in the past.

Telephone interpreting is a field that is growing throughout the world, explains Nata y Kelly, Chief Research Officer at Common Sense Advisory. Fueled primarily by immig ration and language policy, this area of the language services market has contin ued to grow at a fast pace in spite of the economic downturn. Telephone interpreting resisted the recession from 2007 through 2010, with 96% o f buyers stating that the need for TI services increased during this period. Mor e than a quarter of healthcare buyers (26.2%) and non-healthcare buyers (28.8%) expect TI volumes to grow by more than 15% per year from 2011 to 2013. The firm s report, "Trends in Telephone Interpreting," includes: * Results of a survey of 192 buyers of TI services * TI buyer views of managing one vs. many service providers * Call volumes based on language mix; and the trend toward outsourcing * The amount of potential demand in the market for TI services * Estimated replacement of face-to-face interpreters with TI * Average cost per minute buyers are paying for TI services broken down by indus try and language (Spanish versus non-Spanish) * What buyers plan to do when their current contracts with TI providers expire While thousands of companies sell over-the-phone interpreting services, fewer th an two dozen firms worldwide earn more than US$1 million from TI. Most of these companies are based in the United States, where the bulk of the global demand is concentrated. While there are companies with significant contracts in places li ke the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, and the Netherlands, the market is mos t mature in North America, where the services have evolved over the past few dec ades. For more information about Common Sense Advisory senseadvisory.com. s research, visit http://www.common

About Common Sense Advisory Common Sense Advisory, Inc. is an independent research and analysis firm special izing in the on- and offline operations driving business globalization, internat ionalization, localization, translation, and interpretation. Its research, consu lting, and training help organizations improve the quality of their global busin ess operations. For more information, visit: www.commonsenseadvisory.com or www. twitter.com/CSA_Research. Contact: Melissa C. Gillespie Common Sense Advisory

Boston, MA +1 760-522-5362 melissa@commonsenseadvisory.com http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com