28 September 2005
In good news for consumers, it has emerged that two internet service providers (ISPs) are battling it out to attract home telephone customers.
Wanadoo UK and BT are trying to sign up subscribers to their Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, which allow users to make home telephone calls over a broadband connection.
Industry magazine the Journal reports that Wanadoo, which is owned by France Telecom, claims to have 40,000 active users of its Wireless & Talk broadband telephony service.
BT says it has 50,000 users of its BT Communicator service.
Eric Abensur, Wanadoo UK boss, believes that VoIP business at Wanadoo will soon overtake BT, a prospect about which he was "over the moon".
"Around 45 per cent of all of our new broadband customers are taking up Wireless & Talk and on average callers are making more than 150 minutes of calls every month," he said.
"This usage represents a significant portion of a typical household's monthly calls and as services like our own develop, we are confident that usage of VoIP telephony services will continue to grow."
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