Around 8.5 million US households to have VoIP by 2011

Around 8.5 million households in the US will be connected to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) by 2011, new research claims.

According to a forecast report by Pike & Fischer's (P&F) Broadband Advisory Services, VoIP will grow by 14 per cent in the next two years, Xchangemag.com reports.

The increased popularity of home consumer VoIP services could generate around $11 billion (£7.73 billion) for network providers.

P&F reached this conclusion after analysing recent growth trends in consumer VoIP, as well as factoring in the popularity of other broadband and home phone packages.

VoIP's increasing popularity is predicted to trigger a decline in the growth of fixed line voice services.

Therefore, the group advises telecoms providers should incorporate VoIP options in their existing suites of consumer-orientated telecoms services.

Telecoms regulator Ofcom recently announced that there are almost 17 million broadband connections now established in the UK.

The figures also revealed that around 322,000 new lines were established during the third quarter last year.