VoIP Awareness Increasing

A recent interactive survey found that VoIP awareness has increased substantially in the last 9 months. In the UK VoIP awareness has increased from 37% to 46% and in the US a similar trend has been seen with a shift from 36% to 51%.

The research into VoIP awareness was carried out by Harris Interactive. Harris Interactive carry out industry research in a number of fields. This particular study was conducted online in 2005 by 1089 US adults and 1,117 British adults. A criticism of the study is that as the sample population did the survey online and can use PCs. This means they may already be predisposed to online technology and hence these percentages of VoIP awareness may be higher than actual real percentages.

Despite this it can be safely concluded that we are seeing a substantial increase in VoIP awareness over the last 9 months even if the actual percentages may not be entirely accurate.

Another interesting fact from the study found that VoIP awareness was higher in men than in women. The survey found that only 28% of women were aware of VoIP in the UK compared to 57% of men, and in the US 24% of women compared to 62% of men.

VoIP brand awareness was also studied and Vonage cam out on top in the US and in the UK Skype and BT had the highest recognition. However one drawback fro Vonage and Skype was that their brand VoIP awareness was significantly higher among men than women whereas other players such as Yahoo, BT, AOL and Verizon had equal levels of VoIP awareness among both genders.