Point Topic, which does research on broadband services, estimates more than 11 million people were using a retail VOIP service for at least some of their telephone calls at the end of March – compared with more five million in mid-2004. The largest market is Japan (7.2 million users) where Yahoo Softbank provides free VOIP service as part of a broadband bundle, while U.S. cablecos had 2.1 million VOIP customers.
I'm leary about Point Topic's assessment of Yahoo Softbank's VOIP users because it's impossible to tell how many of the 7.2 million customers are actually using the service and, if so, how often they are doing it. That said, I'm intrigued by the concept of free VOIP with DSL, or free DSL with VOIP (hat trip to http://ricksegal.typepad.com/). With VOIP service providers battling it out on price (unless you're a Canadian cableco), the idea of selling VOIP and/or broadband services in new and different ways is intriguing. In a recent blog posting, O'Reilly recounted a story told at an Intel Capital CEO conference in Beijing about a Mexico ISP, MBS.net, that responded to lower DSL prices from Telmex by switching gear and selling VOIP as a service with DSL tossed into the mix for no cost. It's food for thought.