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While consumers might not be interested in sending as many faxes or dialing long distance from landlines anymore, consumers are shifting their landline calls, online. Not only does this create affordable telecommunication, but also opportunities to talk to family and friends at long distances nationally and internationally.
Knowing that I rarely call home from a landline and often will use a variation of text, Skype and Facebook messenger I decided to see to get a broader picture of the VoIP consumer and see what features they are searching for online.
Looking at Compete.com we can see that the top 15 sites for the keyword “VoIP” were:
Among the top 15 sites were Ooma.com and Vonage.com, which heavily market their long distance plans. With consumers wanting to dial internationally it seems like the accessibility to dial abroad is rising. While Ooma.com has a higher volume of search, Vonage.com sees a higher of average site referrals.
When searching for the keywords “phone service” Vonage is a top contender among Telecommunication and Electronics companies. Magicjack.com is gaining on Vonage.com in volume for the search. AT&T receives a high volume of search from the keyword “phone service,” but how are they serving their internationally focused consumer?
When searching for “International Calls” AT&T and Vonage don’t even show up, while competitors Rebtel, T-Mobile and Skype are among the top in volume of search.
We asked consumers in our Quarterly Connected Home survey: When shopping for home phone/landline services, how important was an International calling plan package?
Overall, 34% of home phone services shoppers stated that International calling was important. Through the same survey we found that nearly half of all home phone shoppers considered a VoIP provider (48%). When we look at those that shopped VoIP providers vs. those that did not, we can see that International calling likely plays a large role in their shopping considerations.
Moving forward, how can wireless and telecommunication further understand who their shoppers are? With VOIP consumers looking specifically for international calling are Vonage, AT&T and Ooma creating targeted and successful marketing campaigns?