(Microscope Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
The IP PBX market is set to top $2bn (1.14bn) globally by 2010 a near tripling of the market on last year according to networking research group DellOro as both hybrid and pure IP sales continue to gain share against traditional TDM PBX sales.

With robust growth in the core of the communications network, strong growth is also forecast on the desktop, with the IP telephony market forecast to exceed $4bn, the driving factor being the conversion to IP.

Steve Raab, director of IP telephony research at DellOro, said: The conversion to VoIP will be the dominant factor in the enterprise voice market over the next several years.

Modernising the installed base of traditional PBX technology to IP telephony requires coordinated investment in data networking and enterprise voice equipment, Raab urged. During this technology transition, hybrid IP/TDM PBXs that embody newer IP and legacy TDM technology will represent a majority of sales.

The optimism in the market for pure IP PBX was reflected by French vendor Alcatel, which posted a 7.6 per cent rise in sales to E4.09bn (2.81bn) for the year ended 31 December 2005.

Alcatel CEO Serge Tchuruk said 2005 had seen a breakthrough for its IP carrier data products as service providers increased their migration to IP.

But with the market for convergence technology apparently set to grow substantially, the industry appears to be grappling over how to most effectively sell convergence as ?a product set.

Sarah Guy, VAR development manager at Siemens Communications, said: If you look back at the market over the past five years, convergence has always been the buzzword and we have always been serious that the market would not be an if it will happen but a when it will happen.

The market reacted to cost savings, but now I think the conversations are moving up a peg. The momentum is now moving towards the effective delivery of a communications strategy, she added.