30m European VoIP users by 2008?

There may be as many as 30 million users of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services come the start of next year, according to predictions from industry analysts.

Research from TeleGeography suggested the 30 million barrier could be near to being breached by 2008, which would be a dramatic rise from the 6.5 million VoIP users of two years ago.

However, the current penetration of VoIP services varies widely across the different countries in Europe, with some such as France or Holland having a high take-up while places like Spain lag behind.

Despite this VoIP-gap, TeleGeography predicted an acceleration of growth as these less well-equipped countries are increasing their use of VoIP at a "blistering pace".

The UK is seeing sustained growth in the use of VoIP to make voice calls, but it remains far behind France which accounted for 42 per cent of the entire number of VoIP users in Europe, currently at 15.6 million according to TeleGeogrpahy.

The firm's research found that there are some 6.6 million French VoIP users, which is more than the number of subscribers in the UK, Germany, Italy and Holland combined.

Posted on: 2007-07-30, in: General VoIP

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