• VOIP GROWTH: 166 million Internet users around the globe (23%) will use their computers to make phone calls by 2006, up from 5% today. (Ovum, 2000). http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/160006.html     http://www.ovum.com/cgi-bin/showpage.asp?doc=/research/nt4/findings/default.htm
• VOIP TRAFFIC 1999: Total International VoIP traffic grew more than tenfold, to approximately 1.7 billion minutes in 1999, although VoIP only accounted for 1.6% of total international traffic in 1999.
• VOIP VOLUME: Individuals spent 200 million minutes using IP telephony in 1998, 2.5 billion minutes in 1999, with 4 billion minutes predicted for 2000 and 634.5 billion total minutes of IP telephony predicted for 2006. (CNet News, Dec. 1999 & Mar. 2000).
• VOIP, SWITCHED TELEPHONE CALL VOLUME: Individuals made approximately 6 trillion minutes of switched telephone calls worldwide in 1999. (CNet News, Dec. 1999 & Mar. 2000).
• VOIP: By the end of 2004, 4% of American phone company revenues ($3 billion) will shift to IP telephony -- $1 billion going to consumers in cost savings, and $2 billion going to the IP telephony industry (Forrester Research, Mar. 2000).
• VOIP: International Data Corp. (IDC) forecasts that Web talk applications such as high-fidelity PC-to-phone calling, unified communications, voice-enabled e-commerce, and Web-based conference calling will drive total IP telephone traffic to 470 billion minutes in 2005. "This increased usage is nearly 100 orders of magnitude greater than the 5.5 billion IP telephony minutes projected for 2000," said Mark Winther, IDC group VP of telecommunications research. "By 2005, IP telephony will account for more than 47% of total US long distance and international voice traffic." (IDC, Nov. 2000).
• VOIP: To put the growth of Web talk services into perspective, Hotmail, the first Web-based free e-mail service passed 1 million subscribers in its first six months; ICQ, the first real-time text chat service took five months to reach 1 million registered users. Dialpad.com, the first to launch free PC-to-phone calling services, reached 1 million registered users in 60 days. (IDC, Nov. 2000).
• VOIP: Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) traffic soared 1,000% from 1998 and volume reached 1.7 billion min. in 1999, TeleGeography, D.C.-based research group, said in report.  VoIP accounted for 1.6% of total cross-border traffic in 1999.  U.S.- Mexico route topped TeleGeography ranking with 33% of international VoIP traffic in 1999 and first half of 2000.  VoIP min. are projected to reach 3.7 billion by end of 2000.
  

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PLEASE BE ADVISED:

Research organizations differ on many measurements and predictions. Cisco Systems cannot verify the accuracy of all of the findings. We include all credible information to offer a glimpse into the range of estimates and predictions.

Abbreviations / acronyms used herein are defined and explained more fully in the issue briefs available at Cisco’s public policy page. Most common acronyms include DSL (digital subscriber line service, which is high speed Internet access over telephone lines); WAN (wide area network connections link different organizations such as schools across a region); LAN (local area network connections link computers within an organization)