Analyzing and ranking the top service providers in the IP Centrex market in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, market research firm Infonetics Research (News - Alert) has released its annual EMEA Business VoIP Services Leadership Scorecard.

According to the report, the top EMEA IP Centrex service providers overall are, in no particular order: BT (News - Alert), TDC, and Vodafone. The report also stated that the top providers in EMEA are all close to or exceed 100,000 IP Centrex seats whereas in North America only a few providers have broken the 100,000-seat mark. Competitive operators, mobile operators, and incumbents are causing business VoIP service deployments in EMEA, the report stated.

“In all parts of EMEA, including Africa and the Middle East, we continue to see strong deployments of IP Centrex services. In evaluating the top 10 IP Centrex providers across the region, little has changed in the mix of our list of leaders from 2010. All but three of the providers in our top 10 are incumbent operators, which is reflective of the EMEA landscape,” noted Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.

According to the report, signaling continuing strength in IP Centrex across the region, there is a growing list of providers close behind the top 10 across Western and Eastern Europe and Africa. The top 10 providers are very close to each other in ranking, the report stated. Based on criteria critical to determining market leadership, the Scorecard identifies the top IP Centrex (business VoIP services) providers in EMEA.

In another report released recently, the company stated that VoIP gateway market was waning According to the preliminary report, the enterprise telephony and unified communications (UC) equipment market, which is made up of VoIP gateways, TDM PBX (News - Alert), KTS, IP PBX systems, IP phones, and UC applications, totaled $2.52 billion in the first quarter of 2011, which was down 4 percent from the fourth quarter in 2010.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.