Skype's dominance looking shaky
01 February 2006
The phenomenon that put Voice over IP (VoIP) on the map, Skype, is slipping behind similar offerings bundled with broadband services, according to a report by Sandvine, a broadband network monitoring company.
In Europe, the report said that Skype's VoIP service had been overtaken by broadband subscription packages sold by the likes of BT, AOL and Wannadoo during Q4 of 2005.
A year ago, Skype dominated the VoIP market accounting for 90 percent of all VoIP calls but the tide is changing and the company is under pressure from myriad competitors.
According to Sandvine, branded VoIP represented 51.2 percent of all VoIP calls during Q4 2005 with Skype at 45 percent. Vonage, also an early entrant to the VoIP market, managed only one percent. Other third-party VoIP providers represented 3.5 percent of all VoIP traffic according to the report.
A similar story has been playing out in the North American market where the study found US branded VoIP taking 53 percent of VoIP minutes on broadband networks. Vonage took second spot with 21.7 percent leaving Skype with a 14.4 percent market share. Other third-party VoIP providers claimed the remaining 10.9 percent share of the VoIP minutes.
"Consumers are clearly embracing the VoIP products offered by broadband service providers in Europe and North America," said Tom Donnelly, executive VP, marketing and sales for Sandvine.
Sandvine collected data by monitoring the VoIP traffic trends of 700,000 broadband households from a group of service providers with a total of six million subscribers.
A spokesman for Skype was not available for comment at time of going to press.
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