Experts talk up voice over broadband

Voice over broadband (VoBB) - voice traffic carried across a broadband link, either in IP packets (VoIP) or non-IP technology using formats such as voice over DSL ? took off in Western Europe in 2004, according to the latest research from IDC.

The analyst firm predicts that there will be a stellar increase in VoBB connections across the continent, from current levels of 2.5m to over 22 million by 2008. This burgeoning market is expected to yield $7bn in revenue, of which 60 per cent will come from the consumer market.

Operators have differing attitudes to VoBB depending on their size, network, installed base of customers, and, importantly, their competition. However, most operators in the European broadband market are either selling, launching, trialling, or considering launching some sort of VoBB service, IDC notes.

"For many incumbent operators, this will not be a tempting scenario due to the prospect of cannibalising existing revenue streams," said Jan Hein Bakkers, senior research analyst for IDC's European Telecommunications and Networking research.

"Nevertheless, they will be forced into this market at the risk of losing out on customers altogether."

Although VoBB was mainly used to provide secondary line services at the end of 2004, it will increasingly be used as the primary line during the forecast period, as full unbundling becomes more common and cable operators embrace VoBB services to complete their triple-play offerings, according to the IDC study, Broadband Voice Opportunity in Western Europe, 2004?2008.