22 mln VOIP customers bought their VOIP from cable company in 2006

Worldwide cable telephony subscribers increased to over 22 mln in 2006, up sharply from 15.8 mln in 2005. Cable telephony service revenues are also growing at a rapid pace and are projected to reach $10.4 bln in 2007, up from $7.9 bln in 2006. North America will account for two-thirds of the worldwide service revenues in 2007. In a few countries, the number of VoIP-based cable telephony subscribers has already exceeded the number of circuit-switched cable telephony subscribers. One of these countries is the US, where there are over 6.6 mln VoIP subscribers and just 2.8 mln circuit-switched subscribers. Cable telephony’s growth spurt in the US market has been a relatively recent phenomenon. According to Ин-Стат US consumer survey, 42% of all US cable telephony subscribers signed up for the service during the past 12 months.