Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 16, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Voice over IP (VoIP) is developing towards a mass market. In 2007, one in eight Germans (13 percent) was already using the option of making telephone calls over the Internet. As industry association BITKOM http://www.bitkom.org announced today, Wednesday, in Berlin, this represents an increase of 30 percent over the previous year. Germany now ranks eighth in the EU comparison. The reason more and more people are using VoIP is to save costs. Internet telephony now extends beyond the group of young, technologically minded people and is reaching the masses, says BITKOM President August-Wilhelm Scheer.
Luxembourg is currently the clear EU leader in VoIP. One in four citizens there already uses the option of making calls online. “The Netherlands follows in second place, then Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, the Czech Republic and Estonia. Austria shares tenth place with Slovakia, and Hungary is ninth,” explains Christian Spahr, BITKOM press spokesman, in response to an enquiry from news service pressetext.de. The spread of fast Internet connections is one factor responsible for VoIP’s growth. The offerings have also become simpler because they can now be used via a telephone.
According to BITKOM, however, consumers should carefully check which VoIP offering they use. Internet telephony is not always automatically cheaper. Traditional analogue or ISDN connections now also offer some very inexpensive packages. To help users choose the right service, BITKOM has compiled a six-point list of what to look for in Internet telephony. Among other things, customers should ensure they have sufficiently fast Internet and compare tariffs carefully. It is also worth checking free alternatives – various instant messenger services, for example, also allow free calls.
