Just how popular is VoIP?

David Heath
Friday, 08 January 2010 02:54

Your IT - Home IT

According to a recent survey, 61% of respondents indicated they would consider dropping their landline telephone in favour of a VoIP service.

Compare Broadband is an online service to do exactly what it says - compare broadband deals.  Visitors to their site are normally presented with a short survey question.  When iTWire visited today for instance, the survey related to browsing habits.

Recently, the site asked a simple question.  "Would you consider changing your landline telephone for a broadband VoIP phone service?"

The 1002 responses were made up as follows:

61% Yes

10% No

29% What's VoIP?

Considering the focus of the web site, the high number of 'confused' people is a little surprising, but what is even more amazing is that nearly two thirds of the voters believed they could completely do away with a genuine, Telco-provided, copper-in-the-ground, always-available landline.

Compare Broadband's General Manager Scott Kennedy observed, "Who would have thought the landline telephone could ever become obsolete? People want value for money, and as we now can make cheaper calls via a broadband connection, clearly the community's interest is rising. Faster, cheaper broadband will inevitably increase the take-up of VoIP services."

It seems that perhaps the low cost of VoIP is finally starting to overcome the fear factor of having a more transient telephone service; perhaps also consumers are seeing their mobile as their primary communications device and just want a VoIP service for the satisfaction of having a 'real' phone sitting on their desk.

Please note that this data is derived from a web site poll and may or may not be statistically significant.