LAS VEGAS--A survey conducted by Level 3 Communications found that consumer recognition of voice over IP has risen significantly in the last year, but that there is still a lot of confusion around the technology.

Because of strong promotions, particularly by Vonage, about 66% of consumers said they are aware of VoIP. That’s a nearly two-fold increase from the 40% that said they were aware of it in the same survey last year.

“The category overall has a fair amount of money going into [marketing],” said Charles Meyers, group vice president of marketing for the carrier, noting that Vonage’s broadcast ad jungle has become recognizable to the general population.

At the same time, there is still plenty of confusion because carriers all are marketing it in different ways, noted Cynthia Carpenter, vice president of marketing-consumer voice services for Level 3. While Vonage and other pure VoIP providers often use “VoIP” in their marketing, cable operators have generally adopted “digital voice” as a moniker.

The entire industry also does a disservice to itself when it focused on price.

“It’s not just low-priced dial tone,” Carpenter said. “You have to say ‘here’s a set of features the makes your communications easier.’”

However, according to Meyers, there aren’t many features that will immediately draw major consumer interest. Interestingly, the company didn’t specifically ask about Wi-Fi phones but found that a converged primary line offering that allowed users to make calls with the same handset anywhere was the number one feature in the survey—so long as the quality was comparable to existing service.

“We think the industry needs to step up say, ‘we promise to provide as good or better service than traditional landline,’” Meyers said.

Indeed with per-customer acquisition costs still hovering around $300, the market simply can sustain multiple carriers if everyone is racing to be the lowest-priced option, Meyers said.

In it’s survey, Level3 found that customers will respond to a discount of about 25% from their existing phone bills and they want a “perceived value” of about $100 in either equipment or some other item. Going lower than $25 actually leads to a cheapening of a company’s image and a negative consumer reaction.

“The demand curve flattens out and goes negative at one point,” Meyers said.