Can you believe that VoIP-based telephony services brought in nearly $20.7 billion in revenues during the first six months of 2009? Incredible as it might sound, it is indeed true, according to data reported by market research firm Infonetics Research.
I fondly remember the early part of this decade when folks dismissed VoIP as little more than an idle curiosity. There was a lot of continued belief in PSTN voice services and the money they brought in for the phone companies. But even as some of the early proponents fell victim to hard times, VoIP-based telephony kept growing, thanks to U.S. cable companies and a new generation of low-cost PBXs that used Internet technologies.
“Residential VoIP services remain healthy, comprising the majority of worldwide VoIP services revenue, and subscribers are up 14% from the end of 2008,” writes Diane Myers, VoIP analyst for Infonetics. And those numbers will continue to grow, she predicts, topping 225 million residential/SOHO VoIP subscribers by 2013. During the first six months of 2009, Japan’s NTT, France Telecom and Comcast in North America were the world’s largest residential VoIP service providers, accounting for nearly 20 percent of subscribers.
It just goes to show that technological advances don’t necessarily translate into business model advances. The cable companies, along with consumer VoIP providers like Vonage, mostly emulate traditional landline phone services, and do little to take advantage of all the additional capabilities that VoIP makes possible.
Om is right… With the current voip phone, both desk and dedicated mobile, sound quality is higher than that of a landline — and with the money you can save, it pays for the phones in no time.
Check out the 4oz all new SC-6060S dedicated SIP Wifi phone at www. yippz.com to see how far voip equipment has come.
we need some new vocabulary. what i use and am a fan of could be called ‘over the top’ telephony or ‘toll bypass.’ i use and am a fan of services that save me money whether they are discount calling cards, SIP termination services or direct P2P like skype. things like comcast cable telephone are not even thought of as VOIP in the minds of consumers. they are simply a phone line from an alternate company to the incumbents.
we need to differentiate between service like skype and open SIP operators and the people offer a more classic ‘phone line replacement’
Real VOIP is free. The fact that some big ISPs and carriers ,ay be using the Internet to route their calls or free and then charge consumers for what should have been free in the first place, that is bs.
VOIP has surely proved the skeptics wrong. Many folks I know use VOIP these days. No doubt, it’s inexpensive; but interesting features like being able to access voice mail over email and similar other things beat POTS hands-down.
Yes, VOIP should be (almost) free. And I’m surely eventually it’ll be so. Things are getting cheaper anyway — Vonage has added free international calling to a lot of countries, Ooma prices have come down steadily…
And I agree with the statement that VOIP from cable companies is more like POTS than VOIP. No differentiation really.
VoIP service is a lot more cost efficient for businesses. VoIP phone options for businesses alone cover more ground than VoIP and regular service options for single homes, I would think. I a lot of younger (below 35 – single) don’t even have land line services because of cell phones.
This trend is only going to continue. The fact that VoIP saves money is just icing on the cake. The real benefit of VoIP for business is the ability to easily customize a company’s telecommunications system and to easily change that system. Hosted VoIP perfectly fills that need.
Here is a link to an article that discusses how small businesses can benefit from Hosted VoIP. http://www.avadtechnologies.com/2009/06/05/hosted-voip-pbx-reduces-costs/
Well directed how to,the infos you shared are really helpful for me and to other users as well. Good job buddy, Keep it up and more power.