Phone services that offer free calls over the internet have failed to live up to their potential, according to new research.

A study by Ofcom has found that web-based phone services offered by companies such as Skype and Tesco are used by only a niche following.

Asked if they had used the service at least once, just 17 per cent of adults with broadband replied positively. Only 14 per cent of those who said that they were users professed to use it every day.

Separate research by the regulator found that there was no evidence that people were swapping their land-line phones for cheap web-based services. Instead, web-based callers were more likely to have a mobile phone and fixed-line service than UK adults as a whole.

The research yesterday prompted calls from internet voice providers for the regulator to make it easier and more attractive for people to switch to the services. Analysts and industry-watchers had great expectations for the web-based phone technology pioneered by Skype in 2003. At the time, they claimed that the service, known as Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol, or VoIP, had the potential to kill off the regular land-line service.

VoIP works by converting voice into data and sending it over the internet like an e-mail. To make free phone calls abroad, consumers need only a broadband internet connection and the required software.

The service’s move into the mainstream was signalled by the decision of Tesco, the retail giant, to launch a service in January last year. Other providers include Vonage and BT.

Ofcom says that while uptake is increasing - an estimated 2.4 milllion households have used a VoIP service, or around 9 per cent of the total - in general, “the technology is still in the early-adopter phase”. Penetration of VoIP services trails other European countries, such as France and the Netherlands, where the figure is approaching 27 per cent of households.

Kerry Ritz, the chief executive of Vonage, said that the British environment made it difficult and complicated to switch to VoIP easily. Ofcom, he said, could boost uptake by approving “naked DSL”, which would allow customers to sign up for a broadband line without having to pay for a traditional phone line, too. Such a service is available in other European countries.

Ian Watt, analyst at Enders Analysis, the telecoms and media research group, said that the underwhelming take-up of web-based services was due in part to the hugely competitive nature of the British telecoms market. “It has been difficult for VoIP players to make headway in the UK because of existing competition,” Mr Watt said.

Some consumers have also been deterred from the services by reports of poor-quality calls. The inconvenience of some services, in requiring users to plug a headset into their computer to talk, could also have played a part in the disappointing take-up.

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