InfoCom’s latest Monitoring Services research notes that the expansion of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) was able to offset the decrease in traditional fixed line connections in the markets of France, Germany, and Italy.

 

This has resulted in a slight increase in the number of total channels, says the report. However, for other markets such as Netherlands and Denmark, even significant uptake of VoIP services was not enough to offset the decline of fixed line connections.

 

Netherlands and Denmark already have a considerable VoIP share -32.5 percent and 15.0 percent respectively, of total telephony channels. The fixed telephony channels in these markets, according to the report, are decreasing - 1.4 percent and 6.6 percent respectively.

 

Slovenia has experienced the largest decrease in fixed telephony channels, seeing a dip of 10 percent, followed by Hungary and Czech Republic with around a 4 percent decrease.

 

Moreover, the report observes that in the majority of Western European markets, there is a continuous decline in fixed telephony channels. The report says that this is attributed to the strong fixed-to-mobile substitution effect as VoIP services have a relatively small impact for now. In the Eastern European market, however, the total number of fixed telephony channels slightly increased by less than 1 percent.

 

In addition to limited access competition in the fixed market segment, the report also notes stagnation in the fixed telephony market can be attributed to the fixed-to-mobile substitution effect.

 

Additionally, the introduction of VoIP in this market seems to have not been enough to offset the stagnating fixed line market in the countries monitored. To date, the report notes, incumbents continue to largely dominate the fixed telephony sector in their respective home markets despite market liberalization.

 

Early last month, TeleGeography Research, a division of PriMetrica, Inc., reported that consumer VoIP adoption in Europe is increasing rapidly.

 

According to their research findings, VoIP services are reshaping Europe’s fixed-line phone market and are up from just 20 million consumer VoIP lines last year in Western Europe, to nearly 30 million VoIP lines in use.