14 DAY TRIAL // VoIP is a global application that became popular as a business tool and that, afterwards, was easily adopted by domestic users. While the American and European market for the program are expanding rapidly, the evolution of the Australian one is a bit delayed.
The reasons for this vary from the lack of broadband in some regions or its high price, to the ''poor quality of service (QoS), number portability and high complexity,'' as a study conducted by IDC shows. Despite these difficulties, people seem as interested in the service as their colleagues from different continents. The fact that VoIP has only been available in Australia for four years makes things a little more challenging.
As the study reveals, at the end of 2007, the number of residential VoIP subscribers increased to 285,000, while in the U.S., at the end of March 2008, the number of consumers exceeded the 16 million mark. The estimated value of the Australian VoIP market was, at the end of the same year, of AUD 40.67 million. The sum would have been even larger if people had not been discouraged by the substantial amount of money they had to pay for two services, when in fact they needed just one. And this refers to the necessity of using an old-fashioned phone to dial the number, while the actual communication was made via computer.
''Many consumers are now more reliant on their mobile phone than they are on their landline phone. A point of frustration for this type of consumer has been that in order to have a broadband connection, you still need to have an active PSTN line. This meant paying two access services fees when wanting only one service,'' explains the survey.
The company's forecast for the following 24 months shows that the network-based VoIP will become the main type of household VoIP.