Report: VoIP Gains Traction In Home Service

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is slowly gaining traction within U.S. households, according to Telephia, a market research firm.

Telphia (San Francisco) said overall penetration for VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) increased to 3.5 percent or nearly 3.9 million households in Jan. 2006, up from 2.9 percent in June 2005.

Vonage led the VoIP market, which includes all pure-play VoIP companies and providers who actively promote their VoIP service as Internet telephony. Vonage secured a 47.5 percent market share or nearly 1.9 million households in Jan. 2006, up from 40 percent share in June 2005.

According to a Telephia survey, Skype posted an 11.8 percent market share, translating to more than 463,000 households who subscribed to the service in the U.S. during Jan. 2006. AT&T Call Vantage claimed a share of 5.6 percent, representing 218,000 households, while Verizon Voice Wing followed closely with a five percent share, accounting for nearly 196,000 households. Telephia data shows that 67 percent of VoIP early adopter households felt that the voice quality they experienced with the service was equal to traditional landline service, while 19 percent noted that the voice quality was better than wired phone lines.

In terms of overall service reliability, 71 percent of VoIP early adopter households reported Internet telephony as having equal reliability to conventional wired phone lines. Sixteen percent considered VoIP to have better service reliability.