Never say never

Today a friend emailed me to say that he had just heard a feature on VoIP on BBC Radio4's You & Yours (you should be able to listen to a playback if you search by date). His comment:

"Only caught the tail-end of it, and I suspect it wouldn't have told you
anything you don't know already (if it's anything like most items on
You & Yours, it probably consisted of the interviewer complaining
that a small child could easily be injured by it)."

Editorial comments aside, I thought this was a pretty interesting indication of how market awareness has changed in a short time, as the program demographic of this show wouldn't normally take up such issues unless they could offer some practical benefits to mainstream households. When we see a character on Coronation Street using Skype to communicate with relatives who have emigrated to Australia, the whole incumbent sector is a sell.

On a somewhat more serious note, Reuters newswire is reporting this afternoon that Analysys has issued a revised view on VoIP stating that "the impact on traditional telephony providers' revenues could reach 6.4 billion euros in 2008, representing 13 percent of the residential fixed-line voice market." This is apparently up from 5% in previous estimates, and represents "a worst case scenario drawn up for operators who want to know how badly they can be hit." The story mentions Skype, of course, but also namechecks Popular Telephony, which is eagerly awaited by patrons at The Vic.