US VoIP firms form industry body

By Steve Malone

Posted on 4 Nov 2005 at 09:55

A group of US companies involved in the emerging VoIP sector have banded together to publicise the benefits of voice over the Internet and drive up adoption and usage.

The initiative, to be known as the Internet Voice Campaign, is part of the VON Coalition. The founding members of the Internet Voice Campaign include EarthLink, Google, Level 3, Pulver.com, Skype, Sonus Networks and USA Datanet. However, the group is missing some of the bigger players in the US market including Yahoo!, Vonage, AOL and Microsoft.

VoIP is estimated to be in around three million homes in the US at present.R Research firm IDC estimates that this may rise to around 27 million by 2009. However, there has been some consumer resistance. Under recent Federal guidelines the suppliers must be able to route emergency calls.

A recent survey by Harris Interactive quoted by the group showed that amongst non users 36 per cent don't use the service because they don't know enough about it, 38 per cent are unconvinced of its value and another and 38 per cent are waiting for Internet voice to become more mainstream. There are also concerns about quality and reliability.

Jim Kohlenberger, executive director of The VON Coalition, said, 'We want to help educate consumers about the new services, increased choices, better prices and improved features that the Internet can deliver. By working together, we hope we can encourage more Americans to take full advantage of Internet voice services.'