May 31, 2011 12:11 GMT  ·  By

Internet phone calls are picking up, at least in the US, and usage has been on the rise for the past year. This after a rather steady usage rate for the past several years. According to a Pew Internet report, 24 percent of all Americans with internet access have placed an internet call and 5 percent do it each day.

"After years of modest activity, online phone calling has taken off as a quarter of American adult internet users (24%) have placed phone calls online. That amounts to 19% of all American adults," Pew said.

"On any given day 5% of internet users are going online to place phone calls," it added.

The results are from a survey created by the organization and there are a couple of caveats, but the findings should be indicative of a larger trend. On the one hand, more people than ever are using the internet to place calls and on the other a significant percentage of internet users make VoIP calls.

"The Project found in February 2007 that 8% of internet users (6% of all adults) had placed calls online and 2% of internet users were making calls on any given day," the report added.

"At various points during the 2000s we asked similar questions and found that at most about a tenth of internet users had ever used the internet to place calls and the daily figure never rose above 1% of internet users," it continued.

Pew used a different question this time around, so the answers may be skewed by this. Of course, the usual survey shortcomings apply.

First of all, the fact that almost a quarter of American internet users have made at least one VoIP call ever is not very revealing. A lot more useful and interesting is the fact that five percent of internet users in the US are making a call each day. The monthly figure should be significantly higher.

Yet the market is still in the early stages, considering its potential, very few people are taking up the opportunity or eve realizing that the option is there.