LONDON More than 11 million people worldwide were using a retail voice over IP (VoIP) service for at least some of their telephone calls at the end of March 2005, according to market research group Point Topic.
The number climbs to just under 17.5 million users when
'soft-clients' like Skype and VoiceGlo are added in, according to John Bosnell, senior analyst at Point Topic.
"Japan is still the largest market by some way, [as} Yahoo Japan alone has more than 4.5 million VoIP subscribers," said Bosnell.
After Japan, the American cable sector is the most important, with around 2.1 million subscribers.
Bosnell says the major Canadian cable companies all have VoIP plans. Shaw launched in February 2005, with Rogers and Cogeco planning for the middle and end of the year respectively.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
