The looming VoIP patent mess not withstanding, In-Stat, a market research firm says that 9% of US households were using VoIP at the end of 2006, up by one percent at the end of September 2006. By In-Stat’s estimate, there were about 10.6 million households where at least one member was using some form of VoIP-service at the end of 2006.
If you add up 5 million-plus cable subscribers, 2 million Vonage subscribers and a few of the other independents, you are still left with a few million households that I guess are Skypers and a few hundred thousand Gizmo Project users.
Apparently 61% of residential VoIP users have switched from PSTN, which explains why Verizon & Co., want folks want to put the keibash on Vonage and its kind. It threatens PSTN’s core bread-and-butter business: voice. Or as guest columnist Daniel Berninger would say, the telco battle of mice and incumbents.
The In-Stat survey shows that lower international call prices are the primary reason for the VoIP adoption, especially amongst those of us who use Gizmo Project and Skype. You might remember my rant about poor PSTN quality - I checked my phone bill - holy shit… that 13 minute call cost me about $11, which is about the same amount I spend on Truphone calls to India.
Regardless, time to ask the community what kind of a VoIP users are you? Cable kind, or someone who uses soft clients or do have still doing the Vonage styled ATA-based VoIP calling?
21 comments so far
8:23 AM PT
Cable type Om. Since 2003 have not had POTS.
8:29 AM PT
I use Vonage as a cheap second line. Primary line is Verizon Digital Voice as part of my FiOS package. We were using Comcast circuit switched voice for ~ 8 years before that.
8:34 AM PT
I was an early adopter with Vonage, now using SunRocket as a primary line.
8:36 AM PT
I am Gizmo Project user. Phone is where my laptop is. it works on some of my mobile phones, so pretty happy about that. and the prices are right.
8:40 AM PT
[...] post by Om Malik and software by Elliott [...]
9:07 AM PT
Vonage UK solely for the US presence capability so a friend of mine can call me as if I was local in the US - ATA model. Asterisk box talking to Sipgate, FWD and my ISP - Sipura ATA talks to it and a DECT phone. X-lite software phone to talk to Sipgate, which lets me chat with family in Barbados for free.
9:26 AM PT
2 ATAs with 4 lines. Running Sipphone, Callcentric, local VoSP. Have about 15 ATAs between friends and family. Haven’t paid much in long distance for a while now.
10:06 AM PT
I use SunRocket at home. I also have Skype on my Mac, because it doesn’t cost anything to keep it handy and you never know when you’ll meet a fellow Skyper.
10:58 AM PT
Have been using Lingo ATA for the past 2.5 years. Its the primary line. Very satisfied.
11:02 AM PT
I use Earthlink TruVoice on my Cox Cable line and love it. It doesn’t have all of Vonage’s bells and whistles, but it does have my area code and is cheaper than Cox’s offering.
12:08 PM PT
Those stats seem very high for US households - 9%?
I was a vonage user, but configured my IP Phone to http://www.barablu.com and it’s much cheaper that way - I much prefer the pre-paid route, and I can use the one account on PC / IP Phone / Cell Phone - very convenient. Lots of folks seem happy with Sun Rocket too. Gizmo is a great product.
12:20 PM PT
I am still POTS, can’t get over the problem of not connecting my home alarm system. Hope maybe Verizon will have a workaround when FiOS gets to me (soon, hopefully soon.)
1:21 PM PT
Net2Phone VoiceLine. They’re the pioneers.
1:35 PM PT
Using voange for two plus years and I love paying 50% of pots for service…
3:41 PM PT
Use cell phones what good is a landline anyway?
7:32 PM PT
[...] GigaOM ยป Does your house VoIP? I’ve used features built into Yahoo Messenger, no Skype yet (tags: VoIP) [...]
11:34 PM PT
Interesting statistics OM.
If it is 9% now, it will be interesting to see what the figure is by the end of 2007. Many people are still only first hearing about it and as the benefits become better known, there will be an explosion of new users.
3:03 AM PT
Why I use about 20 different VoIP providers…
Hold your breath! I use 20 different VoIP providers and I need them all. :) You can read in my blog why I do this and how it works. Maybe I am subscribed to even more VoIP services, but just forgot it. Everyone has different advantages and extra serv…..
3:07 AM PT
If the Akismet trackback check of your blog wasn’t so slow you could already read here why I use 20 different VoIP services.
10:09 AM PT
Cellular - all family members use primarily Cellular and secondarily have a Broadvox SIP trunk for some inbound calls to our Asterisk IP-PBX.
10:29 AM PT
SunRocket has been my only phone line since 2006.
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