VoIP Marketers: Price And Features Slowly Win Over Consumers

Despite an increasingly competitive provider landscape, only 5% of online households say that they use voice over IP (VoIP) — or its close derivative, voice over instant messaging (VoIM) — at home, and even fewer say that they plan to switch from their current home landline service to VoIP. While unlimited long-distance and prepackaged premium features might resonate with some consumers, quality concerns and service-switching inertia leave pure-play VoIP providers like Vonage and SunRocket struggling to connect with consumers. Going forward, VoIP technology stands to change the market by liberating voice from the phone; but, to win users today, pure-play VoIP marketers should position their services closer to the traditional phone, while calling out expanded features.