Broadband telephony, better known by the acronym VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), is penetrating American households like never before. According to a recent study, an estimated 3.9 million households were using VoIP as of January 2006, up from 2.9 million in June 2005.
A study from Parks Associates which was released early last year showed that only 2 percent of broadband households subscribed to a VoIP service at that time. However, a recent report from
Telephia Inc shows that the number of VoIP subscribers has increased dramatically since then.
According to the Telephia report, Vonage (
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Alert) has secured the highest market share, at 47.5 percent, with service in nearly 1.9 million households. This represents growth of about 40 percent from a year ago. In addition, Skype (
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Alert) reported 11.8 percent market share, or 463,000 household subscribers; AT&T (
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Alert) Call Vantage reported 5.6 percent, or 218,000 subscribers; Verizon (
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Alert) Voice Wing reported 5 percent, or 196,000 subscribers; and Google (
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Alert) reported 2.5 percent, or 97,000 subscribers.
AOL, too, is set to launch VoIP service this year. Its product is expected to be drastically different from its competition - the company will charge customers a monthly fee instead of charging on a per-call model.
Despite all this growth and sudden interest in VoIP, many Americans are not aware that they can use VoIP phone service with their existing analog equipment. Many also remain unaware that VoIP offers a selection of features, including caller ID and call waiting, which come standard with the service.
Now that VoIP has made its maiden voyage into the household sector, the most important factor for its success is its price. As long as the cost of VoIP remains significantly below that of regular phone service, consumers will continue to adopt.
According to the Telephia study, most of VoIP’s early adopters remain content with the service quality - which many agree is equal to or better than traditional phone service. Many also report that VoIP offers reliability comparable with traditional phone service.
VoIP technology has advanced considerably since the days when users needed a headset and used a dial-up connection to have a simple conversation. Today, the rise of broadband has made these calls crystal clear, utterly consistent and often free to conduct – from anywhere in the country.
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Vandana Haridas is a contributing writer from India.
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