With China's telecom market having relatively high long-distance calling rates, VoIP has gained fast market recognition, reports In-Stat. Besides the big success of IP card services, telecom carriers are continuously pushing broadband IP telephony service forward in China, the high-tech market research firm says. The number of broadband VoIP subscribers served by telecom carriers is expected to rapidly expand to 9.53 million by the end of 2011, up from 720,000 in 2006.

"Another class of providers, virtual VoIP carriers (VVCs), provides PC to phone services by deploying soft-switching systems on Internet and media gateways between the Internet and public switched telephone networks," says Kevin Li, In-Stat analyst. "The Ministry of Information Industry has declared that broadband IP telephony service can be legally provided only by traditional service providers, thus VVCs are operating illegally and have little phone-number resources (most subscribers can only make outgoing calls). However, due to intense competition among voice service providers, and VVCs' lower price compared with traditional long-distance calling or IP card services, VVCs are having success."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• VVCs had 1.1 million consumer subscribers by the end of 2005, and
  In-Stat estimates that the number was around 1.23 million at the end
  of 2006.
• Consumer broadband IP telephony subscribers served by VVCs will grow
  to 12.96 million by 2011.

The research, "The Consumer VoIP Market in China: Virtual Carriers Still Have Legal Market Space", covers the market for Voice over Internet Protocol in China. It includes subscriber forecasts for telecom providers and VVCs through 2011. It also contains extensive analysis of the market drivers and barriers, and profiles of selected providers. For more information on this research or to purchase it online, please visit: http://email.in-stat.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/e5AI0HWMdu0K560E2Pw0AV