New research from IHS (News - Alert), a leading source of insight, analytics and expertise in critical areas that shape today’s business landscape, confirms what many have suspected: VoIP is taking off.
In its latest update, the “IHS Infonetics (News - Alert) Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers Report”, the company notes that the service provider VoIP and IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) equipment market hit $1.3 billion worldwide in the first quarter of 2015, a 29 percent increase from the same period a year ago.
“VoIP and IMS equipment sales bucked the typically slow first quarter, with year-over-year growth in the first quarter being driven by core IMS solutions and voice application servers,” noted Diane Myers, research director for VoIP, UC and IMS for IHS. “While all regions contributed to growth, activity in the U.S. pushed it over the top this quarter.”
That’s good news for those in the business of providing VoIP services, and it looks like the wave will continue.
From its recession-low in 2011 of $2.59 billion, IHS reports the global market grew 64 percent in 2014, to $4.24 billion, “fueled by the network transformation projects of mobile and fixed operators around the world.” More growth is expected, IHS says, as Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) will be big news this year as operators expand or launch IMS networks for the technology, helping to drive incremental sales.
“Twenty-two operators worldwide have already launched commercial voice over LTE (News - Alert) (VoLTE) services, and IHS expects additional operators in Asia Pacific, Europe and Canada to take VoLTE online in 2015,” IHS said.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Latin America growth shot up 88 percent, but all major geographical regions enjoyed growth in Q1 2015 from the prior year.