Communications and Technology Industry Research

Ah, VoIP. So much has been written about it, and so much remains to be said. The technology that allows voice signal to be sent over the Internet has been praised for its affordability and chastised for its sometimes sub-par voice quality, by turns, over and over again.

 

While some of the potential downsides of VoIP may be causing enterprises to think twice before jumping on board, hesitation is much less common among consumers.

 

At least, that’s according to a new report out this week from In-Stat (News - Alert). In fact, the industry research firm found that, as of the end of second quarter 2006, more than nine million U.S. households include at least one active VoIP user. Many households use multiple VoIP services.

 

In-Stat’s research is inclusive of both facilities-based VoIP (e.g. Vonage (News - Alert)) and client-based VoIP (e.g. Skype).

 

Perhaps not surprisingly, given its nearly identical functionality to traditional telephony, facilities-based VoIP services continue to be the most popular. Vonage and Time Warner (News - Alert) Cable are nearly tied for first place, with 1.7 million and 1.6 million actively subscribing households, respectively.

 

But, client-based VoIP services—which typically require the user to remain in front of his or her computer to make and receive calls—also are making a dent in the traditional telephony market, In-Stat found.

 

Skype (News - Alert) is still the most popular client-based VoIP service, with 2.1 million actively subscribing households. During the third quarter of 2006, though, Microsoft’s service gained more than 1.1 million households.

 

Even more significant than the pure numbers, though, is the fact that in a recent In-Stat survey, almost half of residential VoIP users (49 percent) said they had discontinued their traditional phone service in favor of VoIP.

 

Also of note, half of the users surveyed said they use their residential VoIP service partially or wholly for business purposes.

 

Some key disadvantages of VoIP remain (such as the fact that when power goes out, the service goes down), but in time it seems likely that these will be overcome, indicating that incumbent phone service providers will need to begin offering VoIP to stay competitive, if they haven’t already.

 

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