Report: Cable VoIP Subscriptions Blasting Off

The number of cable VoIP subscribers rocketed 900 percent from 2003 to 2004, Infonetics Research said Wednesday.

The number of subscribers rose from less than 50,000 in 2003 to nearly 500,000 in 2004, the market research firm said.

North American cable companies increased their investment in the VoIP technology from $63 million to $123 million and Infonetics expects robust growth to continue in the market segment.

The "Cable VoIP Equipment Market Outlook" report was prepared by Infonetics directing analyst Kevin Mitchell. "We forecast ample growth for the cable VoIP equipment market, especially as PacketCable Multimedia matures, because it promises to further unite the communications and entertainment releases and blur the line between PC and TV," Mitchell said in a statement.

Infonetics noted that the number of cable broadband subscribers grew 26 percent from 17.7 million to 22.4 million in the 2003-2004 period.