Download Squad

You know, there may be something to this VoIP thing after all. According to a new report from IDC, the number of VoIP subscribers in the U.S. will quadruple by 2010. In other words, the number of current subscribers which totals a little over 10 million will grow to 44 million in less than four years.

What makes this so interesting is that it's not just the Vonages, TomatoVines, and Packet8s (among others) that will benefit from this boom. The report indicates that services like Skype and Gizmo (among others), which you can download from the Web very easily and in just a few minutes, will realize significant growth as well. If you have the wherewithal to download a VoIP application on your computer and have a decent headset, you're ready to roll.

The number one reason why VoIP is expected to grow so much is very simple--economics. People are beginning to understand that they can take advantage of a broadband internet connection and potentially save big bucks on their phone bills. Obviously, the technology is not perfect (if your broaband connection goes down, no phone service), but it seems that more people will be willing to put up with small incoveniences in order to save money.

What remains surprising to me is that the traditional landline providers aren't putting up more of a fight to retain their customers and keep them from switching to VoIP. When I switched to Vonage a few months back, I was almost shocked that I never got any type of communication from my phone provider (Verizon) with any incentives to keep me as a customer. Maybe they figured there weren't enough people making the switch for them to get that concerned about it.

With predicted growth as mentioned above. the landline providers may want to change their tune quickly.