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The concept of staying connected is important for all business, regardless of the industry or the channels used to communicate. One change obvious throughout the global marketplace is the adoption of mobile technologies. From smartphones to tablets, professionals are making decisions and keeping meetings on the go, regardless of access to networks or hot spots. Fortunately, access to hotspots and Wi-Fi is increasing, supporting a focus on mobile VoIP.

The same professionals using smartphones and tablets are also taking advantage of the same technology they used to leverage in the office from anywhere on the road. Mobile VoIP makes that possible and operators need access to the infrastructure necessary to support this growth. Advanced equipment is in demand and enterprise femtocells are expected to drive overall growth to nearly $800 million by 2020.

According to ABI Research (News - Alert), the enterprise today has dynamic requirements and operators must offer more lucrative services. Likewise, vendors are shifting their efforts to improve access to mobile VoIP, making investments in needed technology developments and spending time and resources on improving site services and securing partnerships needed within the ecosystem to drive the needed activity.

“Advanced LTE (News - Alert) features accommodate enterprise’s dynamic requirements while equipping operators to provide more lucrative services. Also, vendors shift efforts back into technology development after spending time on improving site services and forming partnerships within the ecosystem,” shared Ahmed Ali, Research Analyst at ABI Research, in a press release. The challenge, of course, is that technical innovation continues to move the femtocell segments of the market in different directions.

Ali also noted that Wi-Fi availability is proving to be disruptive for operators in the residential market and solutions that lower cost are proving to be more attractive. At the same time, VoLTE is demonstrating a strong foundation for businesses making the case for enterprise femtocells. This focus is aligning well with the overall growth for LTE. However, in-building solutions represent significant competition as vendors seek to capture this attractive segment.

One growing market also grabbing attention if that of the Distributed Radio System (DRS). This is a growing space as vendors like Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) and Airvana are bringing solutions that solve problems that come out of clustering small cells. Problems can include handover, interference and even scalability – all that affect the user experience. As this area of the market continues to be competitive and drive demand in the market at large, the focus is shifting. ABI Research does suggest, however, that conventional femtocell networks will still maintain the cost and ease of deployment advantages.

For the typical business user, he or she doesn’t care what infrastructure is in place to support mobile VoIP, they just want access to the technology and resources they need regardless of location. Those vendors able to leverage cutting-edge technology ahead of demand and at a lower cost will likely set the pace.