2/6/2006 -- And you thought voice over IP (VoIP) had a pretty good last year. If market watcher In-Stat is to be believed, the best is still to come.

By the end of 2005, In-Stat says, total worldwide VoIP subscribers stood at around 16 million. That’s just the beginning. By 2009, market watchers say, VoIP subscriber rates should more than triple -- eventually exceeding 55 million.

Encouraging, to be sure, but as In-Stat analyst Keith Nissen points out, VoIP providers still have their work cut out for them. In spite of 62 percent year-over-year VoIP subscriber growth from 2004 to 2005, comparatively few consumers are even familiar with the term (i.e., VoIP).

All in all, Nissen says, the VoIP market doesn’t lack competition. What’s more, things are bound to get even more crowded as VoIP adoption really takes off.

"Competition in broadband access services is the key driving force behind VoIP market development," said Nissen, in a statement. "In addition, multiple waves of new entrants, ranging from broadband ISPs and cable MSOs, to Google and eBay will play significant roles."

Elsewhere, In-Stat says, cable operators are aggressively expanding their VoIP footprints in part by marketing VoIP as a conventional telephone service. One upshot of this, of course, is that nearly three quarters (72) percent of VoIP adoptees don’t know that they’re using the technology. In Asia, South Korea will have the highest VoIP growth rate -- no surprise there, given that country's rate of broadband penetration -- followed by Hong Kong and Singapore. -Stephen Swoyer