Came across the news release below which claims that in China "it's estimated that by 2007 VOIP calls will amount to 210.11 billion minutes with revenues of RMB 52.53 billion Yuan." So ummm China blocks Skype, one of the leading VoIP players and China is still going to reach an astounding 210.11 billion VoIP minutes? Interesting. China's telecom market is notoriously regulated so my guess is the majority of the VoIP minutes are simply carried by the carriers themselves not young VoIP upstarts equivalent to the U.S.'s Vonage or Packet8 corporations. In any case, thought you might find this bit of China VoIP stats interesting...

SMS@ctive Technologies Corp. is pleased to announce that it will soon start integration of T-Bar with its Chinese partner's VOIP platform.
In China, broadband IP phone (VOIP) has become a new major avenue for operators to share in the voice market especially in the long distance call market. As demand for new communication services from users increases gradually, it is evident that broadband IP phone will soon become a significant player in China's telecommunications field.

$ 1 USD(equal sign) 8 RMB

VOIP has been growing rapidly in recent years in China. It's estimated that by 2007 VOIP calls will amount to 210.11 billion minutes with revenues of RMB 52.53 billion Yuan. Cost effectiveness is the only reason that leads to the rapid development of distant IP calls. In terms of distant calls, 2003 and 2004 saw a growth rate of 5.9% and 26.3% respectively in traditional distant calls, 24.4% and 11.4% in mobile phone distant calls, 40.7% and 39.0% in distant IP calls. VOIP calls account for 46% of total telephone calls, which were 37.2% and 42.2% in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

VOIP is considered to be one of the trends in the Internet field with the highest potential in the coming years; it may even surpass the traditional telephone business. With broadband access and a broadband telephone worth only several hundred Yuan, users can enjoy extremely inexpensive overseas calls that cost only 0.3-0.6 Yuan per minute. Its benefits and prosperous future have attracted major investment capital. Some big consortiums and international Internet giants have started to enter VOIP business.

Arshad Shah stated "We will be entering the Chinese VOIP market very soon, which I believe is poised to grow exponentially in PRC, and world wide in the coming 24 to 36 months, as we have recently seen the major players acquiring VOIP companies in the EU and North American market place".