TeleGeography: 35M VoIP lines in Europe in 2008, will reach 48M in 2009

New data released by TeleGeography indicates VoIP services are steam-rolling the landline market in Europe. In 2007, there were around 20 million consumer VoIP lines in service in Western Europe, but that number ballooned to just fewer than 30 million lines in mid-2008, and closed out at more than 35 million lines by the end of the year.

Fixed-line market trends in each country are "surprisingly unique," with household penetration of VoIP telephony at nearly 50 percent in France at mid-year 2008 to less than 3 percent in Spain. Annual subscriber growth rates ranged from an astounding 544 percent in Portugal to a "comparative anemic" 13 percent in Norway.

TeleGeography is projecting the number of VoIP subscribers in Europe to climb to 45 million by the end of 2009 - good news for VoIP and broadband advocates, bad news for landline divisions.

For more:
- TeleGeography reports.

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