DALLAS — A new study shows a much lower than expected number of households that have subscribed to a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone service. A report to be released this month by Parks Associates compares the number of broadband households that expressed a high interest in buying VoIP service in 2002 compared to those who went ahead and subscribed to the service by 2004. While 32 percent of those surveyed in 2002 expressed a high interest in buying VoIP service in 2002, only 2 percent have done so,according to the report — Residential Voice-over-IP: Analysis and Forecasts.
VoIP has been high on the radar of many in the alarm industry, as the alternative to plain old telephone service (POTS) may have compatibility issues with control panels and alarm monitoring systems.
William Creek, an analyst with Parks, says the alarm industry shouldn’t worry about a mass exodus from POTS anytime soon.
“As a whole, we’re in the adoptive stage here,. If I talk to most people about voice over IP, they think I’m crazy,” says Creek, who based on the survey’s findings says it may be six to seven years before VoIP truly makes an impact on POTS. “It will take a while for people to abandon their hard-wired phone service.”
