US lags behind in global VoIP race

The market for consumer voice over IP (VoIP) services boomed in 2006, industry watchers reported today, and Europe is leading the way.

The latest market estimates from In-Stat said that worldwide VoIP subscribers increased by 34 million in 2006, and that almost half of the new subscribers were located in Europe.

"Europe showed the largest gain in consumer VoIP subscribers, adding over 14 million last year," said In-Stat analyst Keith Nissen.

"The European VoIP market is being aided by local loop unbundling, the introduction of cable telephony and triple-play service bundles, and operator consolidation.

"In contrast, US wireline operators added only four million VoIP subscribers in 2006. No one seems interested in selling anything other than plain-old-telephone-services."

The In-Stat research identified France, Germany and The Netherlands as the countries with the largest VoIP subscriber gains in 2006.

The analyst firm estimates that the US will represent only 18 per cent of the global consumer VoIP market by 2011, when it is expected to be worth almost $44bn.

See also:

Enterprise mobile costs 'out of control'

Analyst warns of money wasted on inefficient systems  09 Jul 2007

Sip to become mainstream by 2010

Session Initiation Protocol services coming to a phone near you  05 Jul 2007

Firms prepare for mobile VoIP

But management of mobile devices still creates headaches  02 Jul 2007

Young adults opt for mobiles over all else

No sex please, we're mobile users  25 Jun 2007

HTTP overtakes P2P as dominant web traffic

YouTube alone comprises 20 per cent of HTTP traffic  18 Jun 2007

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