Going into 2010, the carrier IP telephony market continues to be highly dynamic, as service providers transition their legacy voice networks to VoIP to provide new services, many of which are based on IMS equipment.

 

That’s the verdict reached by market research firm Dell’ (News - Alert)Oro Group, whose latest report captures trends and growth in IP telephony. According to the newly released “Carrier IP Telephony Report,” the market for equipment grew 10 percent to reach $784 million during the third quarter of 2009.

 

Dell’Oro researchers said the growth can be attributed, in large part, to the willingness of many service providers to invest in infrastructure projects with strong near-term returns, such as voice-over-IP services for businesses.

 

During the quarter, Acme Packet and Huawei (News - Alert) each posted double-digit revenue gains and continued to lead the Session Border Controller (SBC) market that grew more than five percent sequentially.

 

But in order to take advantage of the opportunities in this market, Dell’Oro researchers said that component manufacturers, equipment vendors, service providers and financial institutions need to answer critical business questions including:

 

* How are high-growth services like SIP Trunking affecting the equipment market?

* How fast is the circuit-based infrastructure market transitioning to packet or NGN equipment?

* How will IMS affect the market for fixed and mobile core equipment?

* How is vendor consolidation impacting the market?

 

“Business VoIP remains a hot area,” said Greg Collins, vice president at Dell’Oro Group. “Enterprises as well as small and medium businesses increasingly embrace IP Centrex, unified communications and IP business trunks (or SIP trunks), and investment in equipment to support these services offers service providers attractive near-term returns and thus, has been a boost to the market.”