Thanks to Cable, VoIP in the U.S. Is Booming

Om Malik — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:03:06 +0000

Despite all the troubles with VoIP service providers such as SunRocket and Vonage, VoIP as a technology seems to be doing quite well in the U.S., according to data from Telegeography. As of the end of March, there were 16.3 million consumer VoIP lines, or about 13.8 percent of U.S. households, and 27 percent of households with broadband lines installed.

It’s hardly a surprise, as a lot new additions are coming from people buying triple-play services from cable companies. As of the end of the first quarter of 2008, here’s how the cable VoIP data broke down:

* Comcast: 5.1 million
* TimeWarner: 3.17 million
* Cox: 2.46 million
* Cablevision: 1.68 million
* Charter: 1.08 million

Cynthia Brumfield puts the total VoIP lines shared by the top nine cable providers at just over 14 million. The cable guys added about 1.3 million new subscribers. Most of them are refugees of phone companies who are losing customers by the day, as we have previously noted on more than one occasion.

The guys at Telegeography say that since the start of 2007, the three regional Bell Rperating Companies (RBOCs) — AT&T, Verizon and Qwest — have lost 17.3 million residential telephone lines, while VoIP service providers have gained 14.4 million new customers. Nearly 80 percent have come from cable companies.

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Thanks to Cable, VoIP in the U.S. Is Booming