Interactive Local Media Advisory

VoIP: Clicks, Calls and the New Telephony Infrastructure
Greg Sterling,Michael Boland , 10/4/2005

Summary: The implications of mainstream adoption of VoIP as an alternative to traditional phone service are significant for consumers, advertisers, telcos and the Internet mega-brands that are quickly transforming into diversified media and communications providers. Expansion of call tracking, increased proliferation of pay-per-phone-call (PPCall) and the degradation of the listings database are some of the potential long-term effects of VoIP penetration. Estimates for adoption in the U.S. and Europe range from roughly 12 million to more than 20 million users by 2009. In realistically assessing VoIP’s outlook, one needs to consider what would motivate mainstream consumers to adopt it at the expense of traditional phone service (i.e., price, features). Another factor to consider is that VoIP requires a broadband connection and thus depends on further proliferation of high-speed access. Regardless, VoIP is no longer the stuff of IT trade publications; it is an emerging alternative telephony infrastructure. The question is, how far and how quickly will it penetrate?

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