In 2003, the residential local VoIP market grew more than tenfold from about 10,000 local phone subscribers to more than 130,000 by year end

(PRWEB) September 15, 2004 -- Research and Markets announces the addition of this new report entitled "Despite Uncertainty, Leading Telephony Industry Players Commit to Mass-Market VoIP Deployment" to its offerings.

After many years of testing, voice over IP (VoIP) is finally ready and major industry players are committing to mass-market deployment of their VoIP services.

In 2003, the residential local VoIP market grew more than tenfold from about 10,000 local phone subscribers to more than 130,000 by year end. Today, Vonage, an alternative voice provider, largely dominates the industry. However, U.S. MSOs have been a driving force in the VoIP industry. Starting in 1997, some U.S. MSOs began to familiarize themselves with telephony deployment and marketing using legacy circuit-switched solutions. Although margins in this business have been low for some operators, voice remains a crucial element of their bundles and these MSOs are counting on VoIP to carry their telephony strategies forward.

In addition, traditional telephony players have begun to consider consumer VoIP. Some operators (AT&T, Verizon, Qwest) have committed to 2004 local VoIP rollout strategies, while others (Sprint, SBC, BellSouth) view the consumer VoIP market with more caution

2004 will see the start of major mass-market VoIP launches in the United States. By 2005, most of the major MSOs will begin mass-market deployments. By the end of the decade, traditional incumbent providers will begin migrating plain old telephone service (POTS) customers to their IP networks. Driven by these major deployments, 17.5 million U.S. consumers are estimated to subscribe to a VoIP local phone service by 2008.

This report examines the U.S. VoIP market activity and forecasts subscribers through 2008. A snapshot of activity in the MSO, alternative voice, incumbent local voice and long-distance markets are provided and recommendations are made for each of these markets.

For a complete index of this report click on http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/223949

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