Virtual Office Resource

A recent report from Zion Research indicates that the global VoIP services market should remain strong for the next few years. In 2015, the market was valued at approximately $83 billion, and is expected to pass $140 billion by 2021, a CAGR of 9.1 percent. Both the high volume and the single-digit rate of growth indicate that VoIP is maturing as a technology, analogous to a spacecraft having a successful liftoff and achieving the needed altitude and velocity to go into orbit.

Although this report suggests that VoIP has already achieved widespread acceptance and is still a growth market, research performed by Telappliant finds reluctance on the part of many businesses to adopt VoIP still exists.

The cause of this reluctance is tied to many misconceptions about VoIP: it’s unreliable, it has no financial benefits, it’s too hard to maintain, it’s insecure, and you have to wear a headset. Telappliant easily discredits these objections, describing the benefits of VoIP that many customers and industry observers have known about for a long time. Nonetheless, many companies still cling fast to their landline service.

The reality of phone service today is that copper-based landline service is being phased out. The FCC (News - Alert) has pretty much given phone companies the green light to move forward with retiring copper-wired networks. As long as enough notice is given and any new system is an adequate replacement for the old circuit-based system, copper-wired networks can be retired and some already have been. As a result, many people are using VoIP and probably don’t even know it. This is especially true in many bundled packages from cable companies that combine TV, Internet, and phone service.

So from one perspective, many holdouts will move to VoIP whether they like it or not--It is simply a matter of time. If service providers want to hasten the process of change however, it is up to them to continue to educate prospects on the cost-saving benefits of VoIP over legacy PBX (News - Alert) systems, and that the misconceptions they have are largely no longer applicable or unfounded.