InfoCom Says Brazil Propels Vivendi and America Movil Up the Top-10 VoIP Ranking

Marienstr, Germany, October 21, 2011 --(PR.com)-- In the VoIP emerging market Brazil proved to deliver high subscriber growth, as America Movil and Vivendi groups managed to improve their respective VoIP market positioning in 2Q11. This was revealed by InfoCom’s latest release of the Global Top-10 VoIP* groups. InfoCom points out that aside from the effectiveness of product bundling strategy, the broadband coverage expansion of telecom operators in the emerging markets in Latin America pushed VoIP subscriptions up. InfoCom expects that the top-3 players (NTT, Comcast and France Telecom) will still remain in their respective positions thanks to their large VoIP market base. But America Movil and Vivendi groups are foreseen to gain further, as their respective subsidiaries in the emerging markets deliver higher subscriber growth rates.

Latin America-based group America Movil breaks into the top-10 VoIP groups for the first time, edging out Japan’s Softbank for the 10th spot, after registering 3.2m subscribers. The group entered the list through the Brazilian subsidiary Embratel/NET, which posted a double-digit subscriber growth rate (15%, 2Q11, YoY) for its VoIP service that is bundled together with broadband Internet and pay-TV. Meanwhile, Vivendi’s acquisition, in 2010, of Brazilian fixed line operator GVT further improved its subscriber base, adding more than 200 000 VoIP subscribers to its portfolio to reach 3.5m subscriptions. This, together with the organic growth from its other operations in Europe, propelled Vivendi up a notch to the 9th spot.

Meanwhile, a majority of groups operating mainly in mature markets maintained their respective ranks, primarily buoyed by product bundling. NTT of Japan still leads as largest VoIP provider, with 12.6m VoIP subscribers (2Q11, +18% YoY) as a result of the steady uptake of its fibre-optic-based bundled service FLET’s Hikari. Comcast, ranked 2nd, grew by 12% (YoY) as a result of the increasing take-up of its XFINITY triple play service (cable TV, VoIP and Internet).

Aside from product bundling, company acquisitions in the domestic and overseas markets solidified the position of some VoIP providers like KDDI (4th) and Liberty Global (5th). KDDI’s acquisition of another Japanese fixed line operator J:Com from Liberty Global added approximately 900 000 to the group’s VoIP subscription base to reach 6.3m subscribers, translating to an increase of 9% (YoY). While Liberty Global’s acquisition of Germany-based Unitymedia filled-in the subscriber loss from J:Com’s disposal, adding more than 650 000 VoIP subscribers in its base to 4.6m.

*Note: The ranking is calculated on proportionate VoIP subscribers based on group’s equity interests. VoIP is a voice service based on high-speed, digital lines enabled by broadband access infrastructure (i.e. xDSL, cable modem, fibre optic, etc) and includes VoIP service offered on top of existing POTS or ISDN subscription but excludes PC-to-PC communication.

About Top-10 Quarterly Monitoring Service: This extract in based on InfoCom Quarterly Top-10 Monitoring, providing broadband, TV and VoIP market data by group, at World’s level, with data broken down by subsidiary. Broadband figures are further broken down by technology and retail/total. If you wish to know more about InfoCom, do not hesitate to contact us. Talk to us. We listen.

About InfoCom: InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with over 20 years experience providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom’s independent and fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage.

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