Vonage leads VoIP pack in US

Vonage is still leading the "blazing hot" VoIP services market, according to new research from Infonetics Research but the competition is quickly gaining.

The company currently owns 32 per cent of the residential and SOHO market in North America, though that's its lowest share in nine months. Meanwhile cable companies are on the rise, with Time Warner Cable holding 25 per cent of the market and Cablevision 19 per cent.

Vonage began offering VoIP service in the UK at the start of the year.

The incumbent telcos are being left behind as they hold an "insubstantial" share of subscribers, said Infonetics, but that should change in the next few years as telcos start offering combined voice, data and video services.

It looks like there will be plenty of business to share around, as revenues for VoIP services are expected to total $23.4bn by 2009, an 18-fold increase over 2004, according to Infonetics' VoIP Services report. Subscribers too will jump to 24 million.

A separate report from JupiterResearch echoes these bullish predictions, saying 20.4 million households will subscribe to VoIP services by 2010.