Voice over Broadband struggles to be heard

Emerging Voice over Broadband (VoBB) services will struggle to establish themselves and win a substantial share of the western European voice market, a new study has predicted.

Incumbent phone companies should not overreact to the perceived threat of Voice over IP services, advises research firm Analysys in the report, The Impact of Voice over Broadband: forecasts for Western Europe.

Instead they should focus on the long-term sales opportunities that will come with retail broadband communications.

"New and old players must not assume that the experience of non-European VoBB providers can simply be transplanted onto the specific features of the European telecoms landscape," said Rupert Wood, author of the report.

Of the competing business models in retail VoBB, Analysys forecasts that the direct access model, where calls are sold with internet access, will have the most success.

The report also argues that DIY VoIP should not be dismissed by telecoms operators, and that the long-term disruptive potential to operators of closed-user-group voice applications is high.

"The threat to mainstream voice is not apocalyptic," said Wood.

"This means that as major operators, including incumbents, launch broadband voice services to counter the threat from new players, they should carefully weigh up the risks of legitimising broadband voice and making an otherwise niche service more visible."