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South Korea had more than 3 million VoIP subscribers at the end of last month, a group of IP telephony operators reportedly are saying.

 

As TMCnet notes in its briefing on Asia here, the number of VoIP subscribers there now represents about 12 percent of all fixed-line phone users.

 

The revelation – though encouraging for the VoIP market – isn’t totally surprising given recent reports about the potential for Internet-based phone services in Asia.

 

TMCnet contributing editor Raju Shanbhag earlier this month reported that China’s telecom industry has ventured fully into the era of 3G, allowing operators to provide a wide variety of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency to their customers.

 

“They can provide services such as wide area wireless VoIP, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment,” Shanbhag reports. “With 600 million mobile users, a 3G revolution in China will open the floodgates of opportunities for mobile internet service providers, 3G.cn says. In fact, under the current 2.5G network, the company has offered quasi-3G Internet surfing services for mobile users.”

 

In South Korea, the market share leader for VoIP subscribers is LG DACOM, whose “myLG070” service – launched two summers ago – has drawn 1.32 million people.

 

Samsung Networks, which dominates the corporate Internet phone market, came in second with 400,000 subscribers, followed by top fixed-line operator KT – formerly Korea Telecom (News - Alert) – with 390,000 subscribers, according to reports.

 

The trends in South Korea and China are seen even more vividly in the western world.

 

As TMCnet reported – though it varies widely from nation to nation, consumer VoIP adoption in Europe is increasing rapidly, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting and market analysis firm says.

 

Officials at TeleGeography Research, a division of PriMetrica, Inc., say that VoIP services are reshaping Europe’s fixed-line phone market. Last summer, nearly 30 million consumer VoIP lines had been in use in western Europe, up from just 20 million the prior year.

 

According to Patrick Christian, an analyst at the firm, Europe may have a single market, but it’s far from common.

 

“However, while the uptake of IP telephony services varies widely, VoIP has been a powerful spur to innovation, even in some countries with relatively modest numbers of VoIP subscribers,” he said.

 

TeleGeography says that Europe had about 35 million VoIP lines at the end of last year.