Improved quality needed to drive VoIP take up

VoIP providers should focus on delivering better quality of service (QoS) levels in order to build on recent increases in subscriber traffic, according to a new study.

Research by Keynote suggests that the VoIP industry recorded a 75 per cent rise in the number of subscribers last year.

Ben Rushlo, senior manager with Keynote's competitive research group, argued that improved reliability and audio clarity will be needed to challenge traditional telephony methods.

He said: "The service level performance of traditional wireline voice service continues to outperform the VoIP competition. Cable companies using managed networks are rapidly closing the gap and will continue to make this an exciting market to watch."

This supports the findings of a recent survey by Newport Networks, which showed that most industry experts believe QoS is the biggest obstacle to VoIP take up among businesses and consumers.

Almost half of analysts at the SoftNet networking software event cited VoIP quality as a threat, followed by identity theft on 28 per cent.