By Sharla Sikes
Despite upheaval, doom and gloom in the U.S. economic world, the VoIP industry remains strong, according to a new study.
The study found that VoIP use is on the rise among both individuals and businesses in the United States, following European trends, and reports say those numbers will continue to rise.
“Internet penetration still has some way to go to reach full saturation in American households,†said IBISWorld senior analyst George von Horn.
“The VoIP providers industry will easily outperform the wider telecommunications sector this year, given that it is an emerging service which continues to gain greater consumer and business acceptance. As household broadband penetration increases, it will facilitate greater use of digital services, helping to improve the call quality of industry services. In fact, by 2012, we expect revenue growth of 90.2 percent, bringing total revenue to $4.88 billion. By the same time, we predict that the U.S. will have approximately 25.4 million paying VoIP subscribers,†Van Horn said in announcing the study’s results.
The study, conducted by IBISWorld, forecast an annual growth rate of 24.3 percent, putting VoIP in the top spot for growth in 2008 with an expected revenue of $3.19 billion US.
Rising subscriptions—some 16 million expected new users—will drive that growth, a 21 percent increase over 2007. Business subscriptions are expected to boom by 44.5 percent.
VoIP industry revenue might cash in at nearly $5 billion US, according von Horn.
Broadband cable is also expected to grow.
It is but inevitable that VOIP will continue to become popular with both individuals and business owners. With VOIP presenting a much less costly option for telephony, who would opt to pay more than they should? Plus, with the Internet being so prevalent, there really seems no stopping VOIP from being used by more people.