(openPR) - Stuttgart (Germany) — Just two years after its entry in the Japanese VoIP residential market, NTT already hold the majority of all (business and residential) VoIP lines with a market share of 30%, while Softbank and other VoIP providers hold 29% and 41% respectively. “During the only 3Q08, NTT increased its market share by 6 percentage points thanks to its aggressive marketing efforts and a progressive take-up of FTTx services” an analyst at InfoCom’s Manila office said.

Up until the end of 2006, Softbank had the largest share in the total number of VoIP channels. In fact, broadband VoIP was first introduced in Japan by Softbank in a bundle with its broadband services as early as April 2002. The service did not require an additional monthly fee and offered free calls among Softbank subscribers as well as a discounted pricing for those outside its network (e.g. 6 dollar cent per 3 min). Softbank’s move to bundle VoIP services together with xDSL services was aimed at gaining additional broadband subscribers. The strategy was successful and, as of end-2002, Softbank already had 1.3m VoIP (BB Phone) subscribers. In response to Softbank’s move, several players followed suit. NTT, as a reaction to the continued shift of traditional telephony to VoIP, announced in 2002 that it would freeze further investment in the traditional telephone network in view of developing VoIP services. Consequently, NTT launched FTTx-based VoIP services to corporate customers in 2003 and to the residential customers early in 2005.

“The entry of Softbank created competition for cheaper voice services”, the same analyst said, “ but NTT’s investments in VoIP services induced improvements in the quality of the VoIP service and added new functionalities”. Nowadays, NTT offers a VoIP service with a voice quality comparable to the traditional voice telephony service.

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About InfoCom — InfoCom GmbH 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 GmbH’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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