Forrester Research analyst Maribel Lopez predicts cable VoIP subscriber growth of about 7% for 2005.
But that doesn't mean cable VoIP is going to replace traditional telephony any time soon.
According to the NCTA, the cable VoIP subscriber base added 228, 000 users from the second to third quarters of this year, a 161% jump.
Cable VoIP still is a niche service, though it's growing fast.
According to media business analysis firm Kagan Research, in early 2003 there were less than 1, 000 cable VoIP subscribers in the U.S. By the second quarter of 2004, there were 141, 800 customers.
Vonage, one of the leading VoIP vendors in the U.S., has over 400, 000 paying customers, and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association estimates there are already more than 450, 000 cable VoIP subscribers.
Time Warner Cable's VoIP roster grew by some 13% last quarter, closing the year with 1.86 million lines.
The big idea here is to offer packages that bundle together cable TV, cable Internet, VoIP, and wireless services and offer them to subscribers at a price that would be less than signing up for each service individually.
If Vonage did manage to survive Verizon s legal attacks, it would still be in a difficult position as a small, stand-alone VoIP provider in a market full of telephony giants that offer bundled telephone, VoIP and cable packages.
Comcast (nasdaq: CMCSA - news - people ), Cox Communications and other big cable companies are working on VoIP offerings of their own.
Think of Apple not permitting apps on the iPhone that compete with Apple services, or a cable company barring access to specific VoIP services on the Internet.
The difference between this rumored deal with Sprint and that of a normal MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) would be the possible integration of cellphones with VOIP service, something that the traditional phone companies are scared to death of, but integrates perfectly with the current VOIP ambitions of the cable companies.
ENGADGET: Sprint Nextel in talks over cable company partnerships
But since EarthLink will have to cover the additional cost of leasing local lines, the product is likely to be more expensive than the more traditional VoIP services offered by cable companies such as Comcast (nyse: CMCSA - news - people ) Internet voice vendors such as Vonage , and EarthLink itself.
Now that Microsoft has bought Skype, we believe that it might be able to influence a faster shift from landlines to VoIP and may even pose competition to existing VoIP services provided by telecom and cable operators.
The delivery of voice calls using VoLTE is similar to the voice over IP, or VOIP, phone services offered by many cable and Internet-service providers.
WSJ: U.S. Wireless Carriers Move to New Technology��for Voice
And both the telecoms firms and their cable rivals are aggressively, though somewhat reluctantly, offering VOIP telephony.
With Congress poised to debate a major new telecommunications act this year, VoIP investors and providers--ranging from cable companies like Comcast (nasdaq: CMCSA - news - people ) to pure-play vendors such as Vonage or Packet8 (nasdaq: EGHT - news - people )-- were hopeful that the new rules would be helpful to their cause.
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, grew the fastest, adding more than 500, 000 VoIP customers in the quarter.
Led by Comcast , Time Warner Cable, Vonage and Cablevision, the number of U.S. VoIP subscribers grew some 16% last quarter and more than doubled in the last year, according to a report from research firm TeleGeography.
Vonage, which leads the VoIP market, is still growing, but not as fast as its cable rivals.
Emerging data services like VoIP, in which a user plugs a phone handset into a special cable modem to make calls, are also starting to catch on.
Despite the relatively modest size of the market for VOIP at present, its quick advances and potential for growth have forced traditional phone companies and cable firms on to the defensive.
The appearance of new VOIP providers in the past two years has come amid a battle for customers between traditional telecoms firms and cable operators.
应用推荐