New Research from TeleGeography indicates that consumer VoIP subscribership in Europe is skyrocking and should continue to do so.

 

At the end of last year, 25.3 million consumer VoIP lines were in service in Western Europe, up from 15 million in 2006, and nearly four times the 6.5 million VoIP subscribers in 2005.

 

Aggressively priced bundles of voice, broadband and video service seem to be the key driver of growth, according to the research. While prices vary widely across Europe, many operators charges as little as US$43 for all three services, including unlimited calling. This strategy has been successful and TeleGeography projects that Western European VoIP subscribers will top 37 million and account for 29 percent of Western European fixed lines by the year’s end.

 

The success of upstart service providers has forced legacy telcos to respond. Most European incumbent phone companies have introduced dual-play or triple-play bundles, which frequently include flat-rate IP telephone service.

 

While their success has varied widely, France Telecom (News - Alert) has emerged as the largest VoIP service provider in Europe, and incumbents now account for five of the 10 largest European VoIP service providers.

 

Some countries are much further along the adoption curve than others. Household penetration of consumer VoIP service in the 13 countries profiled by TeleGeography ranges from 43 percent in France to as low as 2 percent in Spain.

 

“A fixed-line revolution is underway in Europe,” commented TeleGeography analyst Paul Brodsky, “But it’s certainly not happening at a uniform pace.”

 

The Netherlands follows France with about 32 percent penetration, then Norway with 22 percent, Denmark with just under 15 percent, Sweden and Belgium with 14 percent, Germany and the United Kingdom with 12 percent, Italy with 9 percent, Switzerland with 11 percent, Portugal with 4 percent and Austria with 3 percent.

 

TeleGeography’s European VoIP & Triple Play (News - Alert) Research Service is a source of data and analysis about the rapidly-growing consumer VoIP market in Western Europe.

 

To download the executive summary and sample data, please visit: http://www.telegeography.com/products/euro_voip/index.php. For further information please call 1-202-741-0042 or email press@telegeography.com.