There were almost 80 million VoIP subscribers worldwide in 2007. Infonetics Research has released a study predicting there will be 24 According to an article in Internet Telephony, Voip subscribers hit 14.9 million users in 2007, up from 9.2 million in 2006. It is estimated also that by the end of 2008, the number of subscribers will hit 20 million. Comcast reported 4.3 million subscribers, the most of any of the voip companies. Following them was Time Warner with 2.9 million users, and Vonage with 2.5 million users. THe article also states the the total revenue of the voip market increased from $2.6 billion in 2006 to $5.7 billion in 2007 (a 219% increase in revenue).
On an international scale, VOIP is still short of where it could be. According to a NY Times article, "Internet Calling Falls Short of Expectations," about 33% of residential houses in France are on the VOIP network. Although in Germany only 12.5%, while in Britain 11% of home phones are using VOIP services (in smaller countries even less than 10%). One reason for the small number of subscribers to the new technology, is major phone companies that have invested a lot of money and supplies into implementing the copper line (old phone line) networks. Afraid of cannabilism, they do not see the point in cutting into their own profits while consumers remain indifferent. One of the only European companies to convert its entire network over to VOIP is KPN. One of their board members in the Times article stated, "The reason most telecom companies haven’t gone in a similar direction is because many fear eating their own sales.”
