The U.S. market for VoIP advanced dramatically in 2006, adding 3.8 million VoIP households in 2006, reports In-Stat. As a result, wholesale VoIP revenues are growing quickly, as MSOs, Skype, and a myriad of new entrants—most lacking network facilities—enter the market and drive demand for telephony features and applications, the high-tech market research firm says.

“As retail VoIP expands, wholesale VoIP will accelerate quickly,” says Bryan Van Dussen, In-Stat analyst. “The largest segment remains international VoIP, but we expect the market for local services to surge from 12% of all revenues to 27% by 2010.”

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the new Frost & Sullivan Report “North American Residential VoIP Services Markets” to their offering.

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled North American Residential VoIP Services Market provides insight into the drivers and challenges associated with shifting the consumer market for IP telephony into the mass-market adoption phase. Trends such as the use of softphones and new enhanced services are provided. In this study, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the North American residential VoIP lines in service and associated revenues.

The VoIP IC market is not only growing, but also shifting as consumer offerings expand, reports In-Stat. Wireless and video will play stronger roles in the next several years and present new challenges for chip level players, the high-tech market research firm says.

“Tomorrow’s IP phones and the semiconductors used to produce them will clearly be very different from today’s business-oriented sets,” says Norm Bogen, In-Stat analyst. “New forms of interconnection at both the edge and the core ultimately mean VoIP chips will disappear at the network level, as VoIP fulfills the prophecy that someday it will be ‘simply another application on an IP network.’”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• While today, less than 16% of total VoIP chip revenues are attributed to IP phones, this segment will represent close to 60% of total sales by 2010.
• Revenues associated with VoIP ICs will grow from $613.7 million in 2006 to $2.63 billion by 2010.
• Infrastructure revenues associated with VoIP chips will make up only 13.6% of total revenues in 2010.

I received and interesting email which included a case study of VoIP implementation at Hall-Dale Schools in Maine.

"In their VoIP system, Hall-Dale was primarily looking for connectivity and basic capabilities like auto-attendant messaging. John acknowledges that the e-mail .wav file with voicemail messages is a very nice and useful addition, as is the ease of adding new extensions. In the near future, he wishes to add new extensions dedicated for sports lines, for example, to facilitate communication and announcements for sporting teams and events. In addition, he plans to add a voicemail box to accommodate specialized messages for school attendants which would free up personnel and resources. This type of auto-attendant voicemail could allow parents to call in and easily notify the school if their child is sick and will not be attending classes. It could also contain weather-related messages and school closing announcements. He expects that the addition of these capabilities will increase productivity which will inevitably improve "customer" service."

It's a short 4 page study that describes how PingTel made it work:

• Hall-Dale Schools Background
• Business Objectives
• Approach
• Recommendation
• Implementation Challenges
• and Results

Covad has been named the market leader among hosted VoIP providers for business by In-Stat, an independent research group, in a recently-released report. Covad retained its top ranking as the market leader for the fourth consecutive year despite increased competition from existing voice providers and new entrants targeting business customers.

“Covad has remained the hosted VoIP market leader by providing businesses with the right value proposition,” said David Lemelin, In-Stat senior analyst and the author of the report. “Covad has adapted well to the changing dynamics of the business marketplace. The introduction of their Clear Edge Office product is designed to meet the needs of smaller businesses where we expect to see increasing adoption of hosted solutions. This gives Covad a complete portfolio of hosted VoIP services, designed to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.”

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) continues to gain users in the residential telephone service market, according to In-Stat. According to data from the high-tech market research firm’s newly launched Residential VoIP Tracker Service, more than 9 million US households now have at least one active VoIP user, with many households reporting the use of more than one VoIP service.

The firm’s new service utilizes a combination of end-user research and market analysis to estimate usage and market share among all of the major service providers, both facilities-based providers like Vonage and client-based providers like Skype, on an ongoing basis. Recent research from the service also revealed that:

Research and Markets has announced the addition of 2006-2007 Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Europe Report Italy and Malta to their offering.

This report covers Italy and Malta, together representing one of the largest and most influential telecom markets in Europe, as well as one of the smallest yet technologically proficient. Trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, Internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media including VoIP, VoD and IPTV developments.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of “2006 Australia - NGN, VoIP and IPTV” report to their offering.

Next Generation Networks & IP Networks

Next Generation Networks are a concept developed from Virtual Private Networks in the voice market and Value Added Networks in the data market. However the true value of IP is that it becomes the core of Nextgen Networks which facilitate affordable triple play business models, seamlessly integrating voice, data and video. While VPNs originated in the voice market and have become a core element of many enterprise networks, they are increasingly based on IP technologies and available from a growing list of service providers. This report also covers new developments in VPLS.

Subscribers to VoIP services grew 18 percent to 8.2 million users in the third quarter. However the overall growth rate slowed for a second straight quarter this year, according to TeleGeography research firm.

VoIP revenues are up two and a half times to $732 million across the U.S., compared to a year-ago level of $298 million.

Vonage remains the largest provider of VoIP with 1.95 million subscribers, followed by Time Warner, ComCast, and Cablevision.

Predictions have the market growth projected at 1.5 million new subscriptions in the fourth quarter to round out the year with 9.7 million or nearly 8.7 percent of all U.S. households. Revenues for 2005 are expected around $2.6 billion for this year, which is up from 2005's total of just over $1 billion.

Research from LearningGuide Solutions suggests up to "Eighty percent to use VoIP telephones."

"The poll, conducted between June and October 2006, surveyed the intentions of visitors to its web site, and found that 30% were already using IP telephones, 34% intended to in the next twelve months, 16% were considering it and 20% had no plans for IP telephones."

What are your thoughts on the article and poll? Give me some feedback as to where you or your company currently stand.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of 2006 Global NGN, IP & VoIP - Volume 1 - Global Overview, Analyses & Statistics to their offering.

Next Generation Networks (NGN), VoIP, cheaper calls, new IT applications, voice, data and video convergence, VPN, IP networks.

Skype, the global Internet communications company, announced the results of its Talk for Britain survey. According to the research, almost three quarters of respondents admitted talking to friends and family while on the toilet and 17 percent have actually fallen asleep while chatting on the phone to someone else.

The survey also revealed a number of other results suggesting that Britain is a nation of obssessive natterers. Even a small percentage of respondents admitted to talking on the phone while driving a tank!

Alistair Shrimpton, Skype’s Market Development Manager for the UK, says “The bathroom seems to be a popular place for Britain to do most of its talking. And that goes for both men and women! People love talking on the phone as well as guessing which celebrities are the biggest chatterboxes. Of course, Jonathan Ross was crowned king of chitchat but Graham Norton was relegated to third position.”

Now you may be asking yourself, "Femto-what? And who was the marketing genius behind that name?" While I can't answer the second question, I can help shed some light on the first. Femtocells are small cellular access points for indoor residential or commericial environments. The Femtocells are a combination of WiFI and cell and will use your broadband network to help get signals where access would otherwise be limited or not at all.

The access points will allow your phone to offload traffic through your broadband connection and offer cellular carriers the opportunity to address fixed mobile convergence markets with a highly attractive and efficient solution.

According to ABI Research, by 2011 the worldwide market for femtocell products is expected to reach nearly 19 million units per annum. An interesting factor that is often overlooked when considering the femtocell market is that of functionality. Initial offerings are likely to be simple affairs that rely on Ethernet connections to existing ADSL gateways.

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c43156) has announced the addition of Forecasting the Commercial Impact of Wireless VoIP in the USA and Western Europe to their offering.

Forecasting the Commercial Impact of Wireless VoIP in the USA and Western Europe answers your key questions:

VoIP? IPTV? Huh?

Nielsen/NetRatings have published a report that reveals the first set of results on the level of knowledge of online and digital technology amongst Britons online.

HELP – WE DON'T UNDERSTAND!

• Although just over half (52%) of Britons online believe online and digital technology does make their life easier, half (50%) say they can't keep up with it all
• Only 27% of those surveyed know what IPTV is, another quarter (27%) has heard of it but doesn't know what it is and nearly half (46%) have never heard of it.