Telecom carriers have been launching IP-based services to meet enterprises' needs of better business communication technologies such as hosted Internet Protocol (IP) telephony services in most countries of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). According to a recent study conducted by research firm Frost & Sullivan, VoIP access, or VoIP trunking, is equally popular as it offers service providers with an opportunity to utilize VoIP technologies in order to penetrate the customer base of premise-based solutions.

 

The study revealed that the revenues in the EMEA Hosted IP telephony and VoIP Access Services Market totaled EUR 589.7 (720.526 US) million in 2005 and estimates them to reach EUR 78.66 (96.1076 US) billion in 2011.

 

"The major driver for IP telephony implementation is no longer limited to the reduction of long-distance telephony tariff; in addition, lower cost of ownership and reduction of risks are the main reasons driving enterprises to adopt hosted IP telephony services," noted Frost & Sullivan industry analyst. Shomik Banerjee. "Factors including changing market dynamics that necessitate effective communication infrastructure in enterprises and fast-paced technological advancements that fossilize existing technology, demand flexible and easily upgradeable solutions such as hosted IP telephony."

 

According to the study findings, VoIP industry vendors are currently promoting adoption by effectively dealing with technology problems such as emergency services support, echo, latency and packet loss. This eases customer concerns of poor performance as well as insufficient reliability.

 

"The ability of hosted IP telephony to co-exist with legacy infrastructure and facilitate a slow and steady migration to IP telephony is creating a strong case for VoIP adoption. Moreover, customers are gaining confidence as established vendors and service providers increasingly launch more solutions," noted the study briefs.

 

Analysts believe that even if premises-based infrastructure has gained dominance over outsourced telephony services due to its better feature set and superior performance for over two decades, this will continue to threaten hosted IP telephony service providers.

 

"Issue of control will become one of the prime restraining factors," noted Banerjee. "Furthermore, industry participants need to collaborate in order to integrate various technologies and create a service that can provide ubiquitous access to users while hosted IP telephony suppliers need to build capabilities to be a part of this milieu."

 

Frost & Sullivan

http://www.frost.com

-----

Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne Torres' columnist page.