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2.7 Million VOIP Subscribers in the United States
prostoalex writes "There are 2.7 million paying VOIP customers in the United States, according to research by TeleGeography. The whole industry will generate $220 million this year, with Vonage leading as far as customer number."
...is how many "unpaying" VoIP there are in the US. I, for one, use services that are free, like Skype, to communicate with friends. Skype does have a payment service, but along with my friends I never need it. We kinda fly under the radar.
I can't imagine that there are just a few of us that use systems like iChat, Skype etc. for voice communication.
So, now that people are starting to take up VoIP, do you think that people will start to look for the best quality or continue to go for the cheapest price.
At our company (don't worry we only deal with companies, so this isn't an ad), we have a new routing system that does Least Cost Routing, but with weighting. This allows us to weight providers higher or lower based on their performance/quality.
While this increases our prices slightly, it does mean that we have pretty good QOS.
Do you think that as the market progresses this will be something that consumers get or will it always be the domain of large enterprises?
-={ Security does not exist - give up }=-
... of the ol' hard wired POTS phone in my kitchen. I hardly ever use it, but it was the only one I had during the blackout here in the northeast a couple years ago. The cell system had power, but getting a line was iffy.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
Most houses with VoIP probably still have their landline (for the DSL they use the VoIP over) plus the one, two or three family mobiles.
Yes,a 911 service needs to be established, though there should be some onus on governments to help here because it's an international problem. If I'm travelling with my laptop my VoIP number comes with me and knows not if I'm in the States, Canada or Europe. Why can't we click a world map to say where we are and give the operators a standard interface so 911 calls can go to the appropriate location?
For example, the biggest VOIP company in Japan, Softbank has about 4.4 million VoIP customers. Yes, that's just one of the VOIP companies in Japan. (Source: cabledatacomnews.com)
I'm not here to brag about Japan. I'm sure S. Korea and China have impressive, if not larger numbers of VOIP users.
Next problem is I moved, and I found a better deal through my phone company. You may want to check and see what deals your current phone provider has before you jump on the VoIP wagon.
VoIP is an excellent solution for people who are on the phone long distance for more than just your usual call to your relatives to check up.
I looked at my useage and already had a cell phone. I must say, in the grand scheme of things that VoIP was not a solution for me any longer.
Canceling Vonage takes close to an act of congress. You have to call their cancellation center (forget that it's only open 7.5 hours a day monday - friday) then you have to sit on hold (forget the fact that it's like any other call center that you wait a fair amount of time on hold) and then you are given a Return number. Also you are given a $40 charge to your credit card. You have to scrounge up the power supply, ata box, phone cord, ethernet cord, and manual. If you're like me and you know that you'd eventually have to return this stuff, you kept all that in a box in the closet. If you don't return everything, you don't get the refund.
I was very impressed with Vonage until the very end in which they would not let me cancel my service until I heard a song and dance and agreed that I didn't want their service any more.
If you have a cell phone with long distance and rarely ever need to make a lengthy long distance phone call, VoIP ain't it.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Due to odd circumstances, I've had 3 vonage accounts in the last year, 2 of which I've had to cancel. It's never taken me more than 15 minutes to cancel, and there's no song and dance or credit card charges.
The differences may be that I'd bought my own equipment from bestbuy and sam's club already, so there was no issue of returning anything. They just shut off my number - nothing more to it. They did ask why I was cancelling, I told them, and that was it.
I do agree that in some cases, it's not worth it for some people - paying for the 500 minutes whether you use it or not. But, let me put some of my numbers to you.
I have a cable modem - roughly $40/month. I'm using that no matter what for internet access. Adding an extra $15/month in vonage on top of that means phone/internet is $55/month. Yes, I'm paying for '500 minutes even if I don't use them' (a vonage 'rollover minutes' plan like cingular would be great).
However, compare that to my local verizon POTS. It's close to $50/month *before any other charges*. Start adding on all the per minute fees for calls, then extra taxes on top of that, and it's crazy.
Our phone usage pattern is probably different from most - we've got family both in UK and Australia. Verizon's *best* deal was 10 cents/minute to Australia - Vonage is 4 cents, which includes taxes (verizon adds on taxes later). And to get that wonderful 10 cents per minute rate I have to sign up for 'international caller' plan at an extra $4.99/month.
Yes, the quality of the Vonage line isn't as solid as the POTS. Occasionally there is static or a really bad connection. I'd say that's less than 1 in 10 calls. But for a 60+% savings, it's definitely worth it in our case.
creation science book
"Operator, I'm trying to call my elderly mother, but there seems to be a fault..."
"Sir, you'll have to have your mother run traceroute and then call us back."
"How do I call my mother to tell her and how does she run traceroute?"
"Perhaps you can download the instructions from our website and mail them to her?"
The $220 million figure may be derived from just Q2 sales figures. Using this, the number doesn't seem as suspect.
$220 million / 2.7 million users = $81.48 / quarter
$81.48 per year / 3 months = $27.16 / month
Given prices for VoIP being between around $20-40/month, an average of $27.16 sounds about right.
I only mod funny =D
Keep in mind that pretty much the only services that charge monthly fees are the ones that have PTSN access and a PTSN # packaged in the service. I have 3 different VOIP providers configured in my Asterisk switch for different things. Only one of them (Voicepulse Connect) charges me a monthly fee...and that's just because my incoming number is on that account. The others just charge based on my usage of the PTSN (at
In the end though I'm just playing Devils advocate to a degree. I agree the numbers appear to be skewed. With all the VOIP providers out there, there has got to be more then 2.7 million customers. Like some of my accounts, many of them may not be generating significant revenue, but then VOIP was never meant to be a cash cow service.
It is free after the first euro. then its unlimited free international calling, i love it. :)
http://www.voipbuster.com/