The market for consumer VoIP services boomed in 2006, with Europe leading the way, reports In-Stat. Total VoIP subscribers worldwide increased by 34 million subscribers in 2006, the high-tech market research firm says.

“Europe showed the largest gain in consumer VoIP subscribers,” says Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst. “The European consumer VoIP market increased by over 14 million subscribers last year. The European VoIP market is being aided by local loop unbundling, the introduction of cable telephony and triple-play service bundles, as well as operator consolidation. In contrast, US wireline operators added only 4 million VoIP subscribers in 2006. No one seems interested in selling anything other than plain-old-telephone-service”.

MegaPath has expanded the availability of “Duet,” its low-cost high-speed Internet and full-featured phone service bundle for small-to-medium sized businesses, throughout the Northeast as the first step in a nationwide rollout. Duet is up to 50% less than comparable services and can be easily purchased and installed with no upfront costs. With the addition of Duet, MegaPath’s complete line of managed voice, Internet access and security services enable customers to significantly lower communications costs at headquarters, branch offices and retail locations, while increasing employee productivity.

With Duet, MegaPath is providing business-class T1 or SDSL Internet access and full-featured telephone service starting at $99 per month for two phone lines and as low as $37 per line for up to 16 lines with unlimited inbound, local and long-distance calling in select markets nationwide. This is up to 50% less than traditional phone companies charge for similar telephone and Internet services.

snom announced that Gentek will become an official distributor for snom. Now, snom VoIP phones will be available to Gentek's extensive network of customers and resellers in the North American market, including Canada and the United States.

"This distribution agreement is an integral part of our strategy to offer our customers high quality VoIP options," said Jeffrey Freedman, V.P. Sales of Gentek. "snom's outstanding reputation, especially when it comes to ensuring VoIP security and network interoperability, puts us in a position to provide our customers with a flexible and cost-effective solution for their IP phone systems."

Global Crossing has once again broadened the scope and reach of its VoIP services for customers around the world by extending its Global Crossing VoIP Local Service to six more European countries and three in Latin America. The addition of Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland brings to 20 the total number of countries worldwide where the service is offered.

The newly available VoIP Local Service offering complements the existing suite of VoIP Outbound and converged IP services in these markets. VoIP Local Service also is available in Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Global Crossing VoIP Outbound services are available from 29 countries around the world and provide the consistency customers require from global services.

Here are some interesting articles from Brian Dipert on his experience with SureWest, an experienced VoIP and IPTV provider in sunny California. His first article, "SureWest: Initial Post-Install Fiber Details and Thoughts," highlights his initial impressions on broadband, IPTV, and VoIP as well as the insitallation process to receive fiber-based triple play. He has since posted a follow up to this article entitled "SureWest: Broadband, IPTV and VoIP Hands-On," which deals with everything from his installation guy (Chris) wiggling through his dirty crawl space, discussing SureWest's VoIP service and features, and his thoughts on SureWest's IPTV solution including their PVR (or lack there-of) and the AmiNET120 set-top box.

One of the main advantages of ABACash's new VoIP service is the ease and convenience of use: all that users need to know is how to turn on their PC or mobile phone, and how to click a button and select or type in a phone number. No technical knowledge or settings required whatsoever. Other advantages include high quality 24/7 customer support, no monthly, setup or other hidden fees, and last but not least, competitive pricing. Users pay by the second, for the exact time their phone call lasts (no charging by minute as is common among other VoIP companies)!

ABACash is extremely useful for families, communities, and small to medium-sized companies, because it enables multiple phone accounts to be prepaid using one single account. For example, parents can set up and fund one account and allocate specific amounts of money from their 'master' account to each child's account. The same goes for companies: the company can setup and prepay just one account and give its employees an allowance to use specific amounts of money from the company account.

DigiLinea announced a partnership with Rebtel to provide expanded mobile VoIP services for consumers in the United States and throughout Latin America.

Rebtel will leverage the DigiLinea platform to offer local Latin American telephone numbers, unlimited calling plans, and direct termination. Rebtel will leverage the DigiLinea platform to quickly and efficiently create customized internet-calling services that lower their customers' cost of communications to and from Latin America while increasing service-provider revenue and profit per line.

XO Communications announces that XOptions Flex now supports more than 10,000 business customers in more than fifty-five major metropolitan markets across the United States.

XOptions Flex has rapidly grown to be one of the most widely deployed VoIP services bundle for small and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises with remote offices. As an integrated IP services solution, XOptions Flex offers businesses all the benefits of IP with enhanced features, functionality and value for voice, Internet access and web hosting services all in one simple package.

360networks is continuing with its aggressive expansion of its VoIP360 service offerings by adding 28 new Qwest rate centers in the state of Arizona. This brings the total number of rate centers offered to 565. 360networks plans on adding more than 600 new rate centers to its network over the next year, bringing the total number of available rate centers to over 1,000.

The company's VoIP360 service offerings allow local service providers to offer over 90% of the Arizona population (5,397,989*) VoIP services.

Sprint set in motion its expanded offering of cable telephony services designed to help cable companies benefit from increasing growth opportunities in the commercial services market. Sprint now provides VoIP services to 14 leading cable companies, supporting over 1.7 million residential customers on its network and, through its cable partners, reaches approximately 34 million homes passed.

Sprint’s continued expansion into the cable market has created a revenue stream with strong growth potential. Sprint’s annualized revenue from this business has now grown to $400 million. Sprint is now using the power of its telecom assets and communications expertise to expand its delivery of telephony solutions to include commercial services.

According to data from In-Stat's market research US Residential VoIP Market Tracker service, more than 10.6 million US households now have at least one active VoIP user, up from approximately 9 million households at the end of Q3. The emergence of the cable operators as a dominant market force seems to have slowed the growth of the client-based VoIP market, with only Skype showing gains in this segment during the 4th Quarter.

Pac-West Telecomm announces that its national network now provides Service Providers with the ability to reach to over 167 million people in the United States.

Hank Carabelli, Pac-West President and CEO, commented, "Service Providers now have access to one of the largest local interconnection networks in the country. The Pac-West network provides our customers with a national single-source solution that supports their needs for a bridge between IP and PSTN-based networks, phone numbers and telephony database services."

"A nationwide provider like Pac-West presents us with robust and scalable voice communications services and the necessary infrastructure elements to help support our expansive and growing residential Internet phone service membership base," said Mark Fedor, SunRocket Chief Technology Officer.

Carabelli continued, "We are pleased to see SunRocket on our nationwide network. Pac-West continues to add new customers who are seeking alternative choices to bridge IP and traditional PSTN-based networks."

Pac-West's national infrastructure is designed to serve the needs of VoIP Providers, Wireless Broadband Providers, Internet Service Providers, Carriers and other companies looking to provide voice services to their customers.

DigiLinea announces partnership with Skype to provide internet calls to selected Latin American markets. The DigiLinea platform allows service providers to offer local Latin American numbers, unlimited calling plans, and direct termination. This provides a turnkey suite for serving the Latin American community whose needs are very different from the average US or European consumer. DigiLinea allows service providers to quickly and efficiently launch customized internet-calling services that lower their customers' cost of communications to and from Latin America while increasing service-provider revenue and profit per line.

"We are delighted to be working with Skype," said DigiLinea CEO and Chairman Gregory Keough. "They realize that Latinos spend more per month on telecom services than other demographic groups, due to their high volume of calling to and from Latin America. By partnering with DigiLinea, Skype will be able to offer features that address the specific needs of the Latin American markets."

NuVox announces the availability of its new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) product, VoxIP, in Wichita, Kansas. The latest VoIP technology has been integrated into the NuVox network enabling the company to now offer customers an expanded array of highly reliable communications services.

VoxIP will provide Wichita business customers a flexible, high bandwidth data and voice solution, packed with a suite of bundled services over NuVox's private Internet Protocol network.

Two key advantages of VoxIP are the ability to maximize dedicated Internet service with a minimum of 768 Kbps of bandwidth, even with 24 calls in progress simultaneously per T1, and a robust web portal for real-time changes to service. VoxIP services are delivered via NuVox's state-of-the-art, fully-redundant private IP network and on-premise integrated access devices. Choosing VoxIP allows customers to future-proof their network while using the business' current equipment and providing the foundation to upgrade to more advanced systems later.

Woize partners with Sting Networks AB to enhance the IP-telephony services of both companies. The partnership includes mutual services as well as joint sales and marketing efforts.

Both Woize and Sting Networks offer brandable communications services to businesses who wish to provide IP-telephony services to their customers. The partnership creates a new exciting blend of Woize's and Sting Networks' services, allowing Woize's communications services to satisfy even the most advanced business and enterprise needs.

"Sting Networks has a unique platform for offering complete IP-communications solutions to business customers. It comes extremely useful when expanding IP-telephony services as Woize currently does," says Anders Halldin, CEO of Woize.