INTELLIGENCE FROM THE BROADBAND ECONOMY

Voice-over-IP providers gained new U.S. customers at a “blistering pace” in the second quarter, according to new data from TeleGeography that exceeded the research firm's predictions. VoIP over broadband has grown 600% in the U.S. since 2004's second quarter. Leading the pack is Time Warner Cable, which reported the industry's fastest growth rate of VoIP net subscriber adds in both the first and second quarters of 2005 (69% and 65%, respectively). And the growth of VoIP subscribers, both here and in Europe, will only accelerate over the next few years, according to Infonetics Research. That growth will turn the market for VoIP equipment — which exceeded half a billion in each of the last two quarters — into a $5.7 billion market by 2008, when VoIP penetration of the North American broadband market reaches nearly 40%. That pace is likely to give blisters to the sales folk at Nortel Networks, Siemens and Sonus, which lead the global media gateway and softswitch market (in that order), Infonetics said.