Point Topic estimates that over 11 million people were using a retail voice over IP (VoIP) service for at least some of their telephone calls at the end of March 2005. That�s an increase from just over 5 million at mid-2004 according to Point Topic research published in December 2004 and the Point Topic VoIP Application Source profiles in Broadband Money Makers. This number is based on a total of publicly available figures for VoIP subscribers, combined with estimates where subscriber numbers were not available. Many of these estimates are based on a conservative 10 percent growth from Q4 2004 to Q1 2005. The total does not include PC-based soft-client services like Skype and VoiceGlo. Of these 11 million, well over half, 7.2 million, are in Japan. Yahoo Softbank provides the majority of these services, and they come bundled with the broadband subscription. Users need to retain their standard line and pay line rental. This is a common feature with VoIP services, often driven by regulation surrounding emergency calls. So for many of the bundled VoIP subscribers (in numerical terms primarily in France and Japan), the VoIP service is essentially a second line that enables cheap or no-cost out-bound calls.
We know artificial intelligence consumes huge amounts of energy. The power grid is now a major concern in enterprise technology strategy, and it's reshaping decisions that used to belong entirely to the CIO. For three decades, capacity planning meant negotiating with a cloud provider or a colocation vendor. Today it increasingly means understanding utility interconnection queues, local zoning battles, and the willingness of hyperscale operators to build faster than the grid can comfortably absorb. New research from Synergy Research Group puts deep market data behind a trend every large enterprise buyer has already felt: the constraints are real, but the AI infrastructure build-out is not slowing down. Electric Power Grid Market Development Synergy's tracking shows that total U.S. data center capacity is on pace to double within the next three years, even as power availability and local opposition create genuine friction for new projects. It's a striking signal that demand ...