By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

The busy office environment once consisted of multiple individuals trying to accomplish a variety of tasks in a limited amount of time. Papers were rustling, phones were ringing and the constant buzz in the area was born of consistent activity. Today, that activity is still very much alive, but often exists outside of the basic four-walled office. The virtual office has created a wealth of opportunities for activity to happen anywhere.

A recent Phone (News - Alert).com blog highlighted the potential in the virtual office space, focusing on the growth of business VoIP. As mobile professionals continue to use available hot spots and mobile connections to communicate and access to the corporate network, VoIP continues to be in high demand. In fact, Boston-based Atlantic-ACM recently conducted a study that found business VoIP to be one of the three top growth areas within the telecommunications industry.

While Phone.com (News - Alert) is not necessarily promoting the purchase of the study (at a whopping $9,995 for the 300-age work), the company is pointing to the accuracies in their findings. For instance, the blog author has been projecting business VoIP as a top growth area for years. The growth in the virtual office space alone points to the popularity of the lower-cost telecommunications channel.

“According to our new sizing and share study, Machine-to-Machine (m2m), Business FTTx, and Business VoIP round out the top-three forecast growth products over the next five years,” said ATLANTIC-ACM senior analyst Douglas J. Barnett, in the firm’s press release regarding the study. “We expect that strong growth in next-generation business services will help to offset declines from the large embedded base of legacy voice and internet services.”

The main point in this quote, as highlighted by Phone.com, is that business VoIP used in a virtual office environment doesn’t just help to offset declines, that it will offset declines. The cost of business VoIP is significantly lower than traditional business telephony solutions available today.

Even as much as we text, e-mail and use social media platforms to communicate, voice calls are still important, which is driving the demand for business VoIP throughout the virtual office industry.

Traditional phone companies may not be too keen on the idea of business VoIP growth, but many are diversifying into Web-based applications and opportunities in order to replace lost revenues. This can certainly help to bolster the competitive solutions available, continuing to drive down cost and motivate innovation.