Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
According to FCC, VoIP Service ‘Important and Rapidly Growing’
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 by Bryan Anderson
In a new development for the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), the first collection of local telephone competition data to
comprehensively include interconnected VoIP was released in a
statement last Friday with some interesting and promising
results.
For those who aren't familiar, interconnected VoIP service
"enables voice communications over a broadband connection and
allows users both to receive calls from, and place calls to, the
public switched telephone network, like traditional phone
service."
According to a press release, this information is just a
fraction of the collected data included in the FCC's Local
Telephone Competition full report. This is the first time,
however, that interconnected VoIP subscriber data has been
reported.
Here are the numbers collected by the FCC (data is summarized as
of December 31, 2008):
- 162 million total wireline retail local telephone service
connections - 141 million were traditional switched access lines
and 21 million were interconnected VoIP subscriptions
- Out of the 162 million, 97 million (60%) were residential
connections and 65 million (40%) were business connections
- From the 162 million total, only 1% were business VoIP
subscriptions as opposed to 12% being residential VoIP
subscriptions (both numbers have likely increased over a 1.5 year
span)
- Of the 65 million wireline business connections, 2.7% were
non-ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) interconnected VoIP
subscriptions and 0.4% were ILEC interconnected VoIP
subscriptions
An article from ArsTechnica.com points out that
there are over 20 million VoIP subscribers in the United States and
growing. This is 13% of the nation's wired connections-a
comparatively small figure, but a significant indication of VoIP
growth.
Another interesting point from the article: "This survey doesn't
cover the growth of wireless telephone service. But the agency's
last report cited 255.3 million wireless subscribers at the end of
June 2008-17 million, or 7 percent, more than a year earlier."
Because 2008 was the first year that "the FCC required carriers
to report detailed data on the service, the Commission's next
survey will offer more details on this growth." More or less, the
agency's report states that "interconnected VoIP service represents
an important and rapidly growing part of the U.S. voice service
market."
Until Next Time -
Matthew Hymel
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
Rochester
IT Support & Consulting
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