The VoIP industry has been one of the brighter spots in the technology world in recent years, posting gains and adding new clients (and evangelists) as companies realize the benefits of lower telecom costs. Now it appears that the growth will continue, even as the industry slows somewhat as it diversifies.

According to new data just published by Infonetics (News - Alert) Research, both the the service provider VoIP and IMS markets grew five percent in Q3 2014 from Q3 2013, to reach $1 billion. That’s obviously good news for established companies and their customers, and it looks like the upward curve will continue.

“We expected growth in the service provider VoIP and IMS equipment market to slow this year as large operators such as AT&T, Verizon, and NTT DoCoMo commercially launch voice over LTE (News - Alert) (VoLTE) and utilize capacity on IMS networks,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research. “Following a tremendous 2013, revenue growth has tapered in 2014, though is still positive, with the market up five percent in the third quarter from a year ago; VoLTE deployments will remain the most important driver, though wireline is still making strong contributions.”

The only product segments to post year-over-year growth in the third quarter of this year were softswitches, voice application servers, CSCF servers, and session border controllers (SBCs). Still, that hasn’t dimmed enthusiasm for other branches of the market, as 11 operators across the globe — in the U.S., South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore — have launched commercial VoLTE services, Infonetics says.

The research giant also noted that it expects additional operators in Asia Pacific and Europe to launch VoLTE services in 2015; additionally, Apple (News - Alert)‘s support of VoLTE and voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) has helped accelerate such activity.

By market region, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and CALA (Caribbean and Latin America) posted revenue gains in the third quarter, North America was down slightly, and Asia Pacific declined after a strong second quarter, Infonetics said.