Dittberner Associates reports that the worldwide carrier-grade VoIP market doubled in the first quarter of this year (Q1 2006). The growth was represented by worldwide media gateway and softswitch shipments in excess of 31.5 million, up from 15.7 million shipped in Q1 2005, initial data suggest. In the United States, Q1 2006 sales of media gateways and softswitch equipment grew to $627.8 million, up 56 percent from Q1 2006.

 

Softswitches are software-based IP network components that essentially connect calls between different lines, acting as an interchange between circuit- and packet-switched networks. They don’t actually transfer any data, merely open the connections. 

 

Media Gateways are network components, controlled by the softswitch, that convert media streams, say IP streams to TDM and vice versa, which enables communication between VoIP and PSTN networks.

 

Of the top five gateway providers globally, Huawei took over the highest ranking, followed by Tekelec and Nortel — Ericsson dropped from among the top 5. Huawei also won top honors among softswitch producers, outselling both Nortel (News - Alert) and Siemens. Between its gateway and softswitch products, Huawei claimed 28 percent of the previous 12-months’ market share.

1Q06 Media Gateway Ranking	1Q06 Softswitch Ranking	1Q05 Media Gateway Ranking	1Q05 Softswitch Ranking
Huawei	Huawei	Tekelec (News - Alert)	Nortel
Tekelec	Nortel	Nortel	Siemens (News - Alert)
Nortel	Siemens	Huawei	Italtel
ZTE	ZTE	Sonus	Huawei
Sonus	Italtel	Ericsson (News - Alert)	Sonus

 

 

Dittberner data shows that, while the overall market grew during the past year, it experienced a 16 percent decline in sales since Q4 2005 — but that dip can be attributed to the annual sluggishness of Q1, which typically accounts for but 15 percent of annual sales.

 

Because softswitches are exponentially less expensive to maintain than previous hardware switching solutions, carriers are making the “switch,” which is driving the increase in market penetration globally.

 

Dittberner’s NGN Program keeps track on a quarterly and continuous basis of worldwide VoIP market size in terms of ports shipped and revenue, by product (media gateway, softswitch), architecture (distributed, integrated), class type (class4, class5) and port type (IP, ATM, TDM), regional breakdown of these shipments in terms or ports and revenue.