There are all sorts of numbers on VoIP growth in the past two weeks. They're spread everywhere you look. But where is the real growth? Where's that measureable growth rate everyone keeps pointing at?

Two places we see growth are in the consumer's home and in the SOHO.

Telephia Reports 4.1 Percent of Online U.S. Households Subscribe to a VoIP Telephone Service, Up From 3.1 Percent in Q1 2006
VoIP Subscribers Cite Network Quality as the Primary Reason for Switching Service Providers
July 21, 2006 -- North America, BUSINESS WIRE -- Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) continues to gain subscribers in the home telephone service market, according to Telephia, the leading provider of performance measurement information to the converging communications and mobile industries. Households subscribing to pure-play subscription VoIP services, who are either replacing or complementing existing traditional landline services, increased from 2.2 million in Q1 2006 to 2.9 million in Q2 2006. Vonage continues to own the largest market share of pure-play subscription VoIP consumers with a 53.9 percent share (see Table 1). Telephia's Total Communications Survey for Q2 2006 shows that Verizon VoiceWing and AT&T CallVantage were tied for second place, each securing a 5.5 percent share. SunRocket followed with a four percent share, while Lingo claimed a 2.6 percent share. NetZero Voice rounded out the top five with a 2.5 percent share.

The Telephia Total Communications Survey aims to understand the attitudes of households towards emerging communications services, providing integrated insights into household use and preferences across converged landline and wireless phone, VoIP, Internet and TV services. Rankings for the top pure-play VoIP providers are based on subscription services, and excludes market share for free or pay-per-call VoIP services.

While some are questioning Telephia's numbers and pointing out how difficult it is to actually get valid numbers, the report makes clear that it's focused on the home telephone service market. And while Vonage still holds the lion's share of the consumer market in the states, those numbers are in flux, and Vonage's struggles continue.

In the SOHO market, we've seen routers, switches, home office ATAs and a wide variety of solutions. As Cisco, Nortel, Avaya and the other large players continue to play to the enterprise, it's important to note where the growth space in the market has really surfaced.

Big vendors go after big customers. The Fortune 500 is the primary target of the largest equipment manufacturers. But the unfortunate five milllion who work in SMB and SOHO environments have begun to really see products that fit their business needs. They've become a prized target for many solution providers. These are companys who've regonized that the SOHO market alone represents millions of people.

Let's also not overlook AT&T's CallVantage or Verizon's VoiceWing. Both services have pros and cons, but their target isn't the Fortune 500. These offerings are targeted and residential and SOHO customers.

What about enterprise growth? If we look to the reports from the industry analysts, we see slow and steady growth. Not wild, headline making numbers, but consistently continued adoption. Enterprise business moves more slowly, but with reason. For the enterprise, there are huge decisions to make when deploying a voice service. Some businesses will self-manage their own service. Others will subscribe to a managed offering. And many are watching fixed mobile convergence closely as they balance the need for VoIP with the broader range of fully unified communications.

The bottom line is that whether you call it VoIP, IP telephony, or unified communications, it's growing across the board. There's a steady groundswell of adoption and deployment in every market segment. VoIP has become a force in both the residential and business market, and it's one that won't be easily slowed. Critical mass has fueled its momentum and inertia will keep it moving.


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