9 mln US VOIP subscribers in 2006

Yankee Group announced that consumer VoIP adoption continued at an aggressive pace in 2006, growing more than 125% and reaching more than 9 mln subscribers. Consumer VoIP services made headway by penetrating 9% of all US households, up from 4% in the previous year. VoIP is evolving beyond being a residential phone equivalent and is embedding itself into web-based advertisements, web site assistance and other click-to-call solutions. In addition, as consumers begin to demand inexpensive anywhere connectivity, there is more demand for mobile VoIP. The opportunity for VoIP on dual-mode mobile phones will increase as the number of units in use rises from 913,000 in 2006 to 22 mln in 2011. At 167%, cable VoIP experienced the strongest growth in 2006. The majority of residential VoIP subscribers will subscribe to bundles from cable companies by 2011.