Believe it or not, VoIP currently has 120 million subscribers worldwide- a number that is only going to continue to increase in the years to come, according to a recent Point Topic analysis. In fact the same analysts are predicting that by 2015, the VoIP market will generate an impressive $40 billion.

If you’re not familiar with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), it’s time to educate yourself because the VoIP market is here to stay. Whether we’re talking VoIP scaled for a large enterprise or small business VoIP, by utilizing the Internet and business IP phones, VoIP is changing the way we communicate today and how phone developers are manufacturing their products as well.   

“We expect there to be over three quarters of a billion fixed line broadband subscribers by the end of 2015, in theory all of them are targets for VoIP,” said John Bosnell, senior analyst at Point Topic. “Given a number of assumptions, relatively consistent ARPU, regulatory easement, a cautious set of projections and so on, we expect the global fixed line VoIP market to be generating at least $40 billion a year in five years’ time.”

According to Point Topics, all projections about the size and value of the VoIP market should be approached with caution. At this stage in the development of the market there are so many variables that forecasting models can easily be off by a significant margin. For example, an increasing number of subscribers are doing without a fixed line telephone service at all, relying instead on mobile.

 “The growth of VoIP has been bumpy but shows signs of acceleration,” said John Bosnell, senior analyst at Point Topic. “VoIP has all the hallmarks of a classic substitution commodity. This is where customers look at the service that is delivered by a new product and decide that it meets, or exceeds, the service they are currently receiving and when it is appropriately priced they will switch from one to the other.”

 The Point Topic report revealed that there was a global growth in VoIP of 12.6 percent during 2010 and it’s with the demand for VoIP in the market, its only going to increase. The report also noted that by 2010, more than 50 percent of telephony traffic originating on fixed networks was started on a VoIP phone in France.

“France has been something of a test bed for VoIP. Driven by an active supplier base that has made VoIP available to a large percentage of the population over the last decade, providers have been rewarded with significant take-up,” added Bosnell.

Stefanie Mosca is a Web editor for TMCnet. Previously she worked as a freelance copy editor for Digital Surgeons LLC. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University and a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of New Haven. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefanie Mosca