VoIP Ranking by Subscriber: Q1 2008

Digital phone continues to advance, but subscriber data on some key players is still unavailable.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [July 28, 2008]

Rank	ISP	Subs. (thousands)	Date & Source
1	Comcast Digital Phone* ((circuit switched customers not counted)	5,200	[May 1, 2008] SEC 10-Q
2	Time Warner Digital Phone*	3,180	[April 30, 2008] Trending Schedules
3	Vonage	2,610	[May 12, 2008] SEC 10-Q
4	Cox* (business and residential)	2,460	[May 14, 2008] Press Release
5	CableVision* (cable VoIP under the Optimum Voice brand name)	1,685	[May 9, 2008] SEC 10-Q
6	Charter* (cable VoIP)	1,085	[May 12, 2008] SEC 10-Q
7	Insight Communications* (cable VoIP)	204	[May 15, 2008] Press Release [.pdf]
8	Mediacom* (cable VoIP)	204	[May 9, 2008] SEC 10-Q
9	SureWest	54	[May 12, 2008] SEC 10-Q
10	CBeyond (customer locations)	36	[May 12, 2008] SEC 10-Q
	Note: data was unavailable for some VoIP service providers.
	Note: services with an asterisk * are digital phone, not true VoIP

The competitors are in trouble.

Vonage is not growing as rapidly as digital phone. eBay has not published subscriber numbers for Skype. XO Communications did not provide subscriber data and may have been affected by the SunRocket flameout. United Online announced that its VoIP service is "being curtailed."

Covad was acqired [.pdf] by private equity. It no longer reports numbers and has been removed from the list.

Perhaps because of this lack of competition, no major VoIP provider gets an acceptable grade from broadband reports for customer service (item 5) and none has managed to earn a star from BBR. At press time, Time Warner Cable's offering had a top rating for reliability—and was tied with magicJack, a $2 per month service, for worst website.

I use magicJack. The price is compelling but the service is quirky. The AP claims it's the fastest growing phone company in the U.S., but we have no data.

AT&T Callvantage is one of many services for which we do not have subscriber numbers. Paetec reported number of T-1s delivered but we cannot translate this into a subscriber number. It is clearly a major player in business services.