New research from TeleGeography indicates that consumer VoIP subscribership in Europe is skyrocketing. At year-end 2007, 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.

The key driver of growth has been aggressively priced bundles of voice, broadband, and video service. While prices vary widely across Europe, many operators charge as little as €30 (U.S. $43) for all three services, including unlimited calling. This strategy has been spectacularly successful: TeleGeography projects that western European VoIP subscribers will top 37 million and will account for 29 percent of western European fixed lines by year-end 2008.

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

TeleGeography’s European VoIP & Triple Play Research Service is the most complete 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 us at +1 202 741-0042 or email press@telegeography.com.

According to new data from TeleGeography, international Internet traffic grew 53 percent between mid-2007 and mid-2008, down from 61 percent the preceding year. Traffic growth between the U.S. and Latin America was especially fast, surging 112 percent. In contrast, traffic on Internet backbones between major cities in the relatively more mature U.S. market rose a modest 47 percent.

For the second consecutive year, total international Internet capacity grew faster than total Internet traffic, leading to lower utilization levels on many Internet backbones. Between 2007 and 2008, average traffic utilization levels decreased from 31 percent to 29 percent, while peak utilization fell from 44 percent to 43 percent. The aggregate trend toward lower utilization of capacity belies significant regional differences. While utilization on international links to Europe and Asia fell in 2008, they rose in the U.S. & Canada and Latin American where traffic growth outpaced the deployment of new Internet bandwidth.

Traffic growth has remained strong, even though the pace of broadband subscriber growth has declined. “Broadband subscriber growth has been slowing since 2001, but the volume of traffic generated by each user grown,” said TeleGeography Director of Research Alan Mauldin. “Traffic growth is fueled by consumer demand for video, delivered via web browsers, peer-to-peer services, or streaming protocols.”

TeleGeography’s Global Internet Geography provides in-depth analysis of international and U.S. domestic Internet backbone capacity, traffic and pricing.

To download the executive summary of TeleGeography’s Global Internet Geography study, please visit: http://www.telegeography.com/products/gig/index.php.

For more information please contact us at:
+1 (202) 741-0042 or press@telegeography.com