MORE THAN 20 MILLION U.S. HOUSEHOLDS WILL SUBSCRIBE TO A VOIP-BASED TELEPHONE SERVICE BY 2010

Jupiter Research By 2010, 20.4 million U.S. households will subscribe to a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-based broadband telephony service, a dramatic increase from the 1.2 million subscribers in 2004. Both cable operators and startups are marketing services, which continues to increase consumer awareness. While providers face regulatory and competitive challenges, the message of cheaper, more feature-rich phone service is attracting consumers.

Broadband telephony as VoIP-based services offering the ability to make and receive calls via the Internet from anyone with a phone. PC-based systems, such as Skype, as niche players in the U.S. and are, therefore, not included in this forecast. With the current abundance of broadband telephony offerings, the market has spurred competition around price and features. Although most consumers still do not know what VoIP stands for, they do increasingly know that if they have broadband they have alternatives for getting phone service.

U.S. Broadband Telephony Forecast 2005 to 2010, Publ. 20051025