More than one fourth of user organizations that participated in an online poll said they use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology in their enterprises. In the same poll, nearly three-quarters of installation companies said they are installing the systems.

The poll was conducted on this Web site (www.cable-install.com) between November 5 and November 26. Over the course of those three weeks, 117 visitors responded.

Among the respondents, 51 classified themselves as end-user organizations. Among them, 14 (27% of end users) said they use VoIP while 37 (73%) said they do not. Of the 66 respondents who classified themselves as installation organizations, 49 (74% of installation companies) said they are installing VoIP systems and 17 (26%) said they are not.

"Some advocates have said that VoIP is not the technology of the future, but rather the technology of today," says Patrick McLaughlin, chief editor of Cabling Installation & Maintenance magazine and its Web site. "The results of this survey give some credence to that claim."

He added that the magazine's monthly columnist, Donna Ballast, will address the issue of VoIP in her January 2003 column, Ask Donna.