More know about VoIP in U.K. and U.S.A.

According to crm2day, a recent Harris Interactive survey shows that greater numbers are becoming aware of Voice over Internet Protocol on both sides of the ocean and, in America at least, the VoIP savvy are the majority. VoIP awareness and actual use has spread like wildfire: In Britain, forty-six percent of the 1,100-plus polled in the survey had heard of Voice over Internet Protocol or used the telephone-via-internet system already.

In America, that number is fifty-one percent. What makes these percentages even more impressive are the numbers gleaned nine months before showing that awareness of VoIP was at thirty-seven and thirty-six percent, respectively. The online survey collected 1,117 British and 1,089 American responses from adults aged eighteen or more. In contrast, a great many people in both countries are utterly unaware of Voice over Internet Protocol. According to the survey, forty-one percent of British adults and thirty-six percent in America have never heard of the technology.

As for those straddling the fence between interest and use, some fifty-six percent show some interest toward VoIP in Britain and almost half in the U.S.; twenty-six percent of those interested in both Britain and America stated that they will be likely to give strong consideration to VoIP within the next year. Somewhat mysteriously, low numbers were produced when respondents were asked about their interest in making telephone calls via internet: a scanty eleven percent in Britain and nine percent in the U.S.

When considering providers in the mass market, America’s Vonage and Britain’s Skype were given the good news / bad news dichotomy: While these companies were far and any the most recognized, these companies are finding it difficult for some reason to gain the attention of female consumers. Skype faces the widest gap here, as its awareness rate among men is some fifty-eight percent, while a mere thirty percent of women are aware of their existence. Non-specialist players have a far greater advantage in this respect, as awareness is shown to be at equal levels among men and women regarding AOL, Verizon, Yahoo and BT, most likely because of their other product lines. Britain’s BT made out best on this part of the survey, scoring high in awareness levels overall and balance between the sexes in awareness.

In summation, Harris Interactive research director Derek Eccleston said, “Overall, the market is much more open to VoIP than it was at the beginning of 2005. For now, it is still a service used by a niche audience … To tempt a broader range of consumers to try the service, players in the market need to generate greater awareness of the service, explaining what it does and how it works, clearly communicating the key benefits delivered by the service, and find ways to lower the perceived barriers to use. The most successful companies … will be those which deliver the right messages and the right mix of benefits to targeted segments of consumers with the most potential for take-up.”