US VoIP Market still soaring...Europe even more!

The number of US consumer VoIP subscribers soared from 6.5 million in mid-2006 to 11.8 million by the 2nd quarter of 2007, according to TeleGeography's US VoIP Research Service. TeleGeography projects that the number of US VoIP subscribers will rise to 23.3 million by 2011, driven chiefly by the strong growth of cable providers' IP telephony offerings. Nevertheless, US VoIP subscriber growth is falling well behind the blistering pace set by European VoIP service providers. Both markets experienced similar growth patterns over the first few years of development, but began to diverge in 2006. Several factors help account for Europe’s much more rapid VoIP service growth, including freer access to incumbents’ local copper loops, more aggressive competition and pricing, and the active participation of incumbent operators such as France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and BT in the VoIP market. In Europe, incumbent service providers accounted for 26%of VoIP subscribers, while in the US, AT&T, Verizon and Qwest have remained largely on the sidelines. If these factors remain in place, TeleGeography projects that by 2011, VoIP penetration in Europe will be approximately twice as great as in the US.