Calculating VOIP Market Share Is Tricky

Just how many VOIP subscribers does BT have? It would depend on who you ask. BT recently announced that it had reached the one million mark with VOIP customers. Market analysts call this a misleading announcement because it is “loosely worded.” BT has come back and completely disputed the comments of the analysts.

The argument between the analysts and BT centers around the way customers are signed up. The analysts say that the practice is to bundle services in the BT Retails Total Broadband – which means that customers are automatically signed up for the VOIP service whether they actually use the service or not.

BT says that is a completely false statement. According to the company, VOIP customers have to go through a separate sign up to receive the service. This is where it claims the numbers for the announcement came from.

One of the reasons BT is so excited about the million mark is that it came six months ahead of the predicted schedule. That speaks well of BT’s future in the VOIP market. BT feels that this milestone and its products make it a strong player in VOIP.

There is no real way to tell which companies have the strongest share of the VOIP market. Other large providers – like Orange and Skype – do not quote the size of their registered user base. With out these figures, there is no way to determine a true market share.