UK lags in VoIP adoption

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Although Ofcom research shows the UK to be early adopters of tech, we are still miles behind other countries when it comes to using Voice over IP.

VoIP

Despite a growth in Voice over IP (VoIP) products available on the market, the UK has failed in taking advantage of the technology.

New research from Ofcom has claimed just five per cent of people subscribed to such services, compared to 20 per cent in the Netherlands and 26 per cent in France.

However, there was a notable growth 27 per cent in subscribers between 2006 and 2009.

"VoIP services tend to be more popular in countries where there is high demand for international calls or where broadband is available to consumers without the need for a landline services (also known as naked DSL)," said Ofcom.

However, even with this particular failing, the UK was shown to be a highly connected nation with the highest growth of smartphone adoption across the six countries Ofcom surveyed.

The researched showed a 70 per cent rise in take up between January 2009 and January 2010, leading to over a quarter of UK citizens owning a smartphone.

Jennifer Scott
Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.