July 26, 2006
Vonage Is Still #1 In VoIP Market Share
Despite the beating that Vonage (NYSE: VG) has taken in the stock market, they are still #1 in terms of pure VoIP service popularity, according to a survey by Telephia.
The survey (PDF, 3 pgs) shows that of all US households subscribing to "pure-play" VoIP services, Vonage currently has nearly 54% of the market. They're followed by Verizon VoiceWing and AT&T CallVantage, each with a distant 5.5%. The remaining providers in the top nine each hold between 0.9-4% of the market share, with tenth place being an aggregate of providers holding 20%. (Given that Vonage supposedly spends $20 million per month in advertising, it's only fitting that they're in first place.)
These numbers only include services categorized as Internet telephony providers, and thus excludes "digital phone" services offered by some cable and telecom companies. Soft VoIP services such as Skype are also excluded. Still, with Vonage so far ahead of at least a dozen companies, there's enough motive to want to bring them down. (What me? Sound like a conspiracy theorist?) I still maintain that Vonage needs to ally themselves with some big player, to save themselves, at least in terms of market valuation.
Telephia conducts performance measurements of both the converging communications and mobile industries. Their survey shows that of the reasons that customers might switch VoIP providers, call quality ranked highest (27.4%), followed by customer service (14.7%) and then plan price (13.4%).
A survey earlier this year by Telephia showed that residential VoIP increased to 3.1% of households compared to June 2005. That number is now 4.1% for Q2 2006.
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