VoIP and UC Markets to See Continued Strong Growth Over Next Five Years
By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor
While it seems right now that the economy has very few bright spots, there are some areas that will see rapid growth in the near future. Voice over IP and unified communications technology are two of these bright spots.
According to analyst group Infonetics Research (News - Alert), which released excerpts from its “VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers Market Share and Forecast,” many VoIP and UC segments are in the middle of an impressive growth spurt which is only expected to continue.
“The SIP trunking and hosted UC segments were marked by strong growth and dynamic supplier landscapes in the first half of 2012,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research at the announcement of the report’s availability. “Beyond traditional operators and service providers, we’re seeing a growing number of PBX (News - Alert)/UC vendors, enterprise agents, system integrators, and resellers expanding into hosted UC offerings.”
Infonetics says it predicts that a cumulative $377 billion will be spent on business and residential/SOHO VoIP services over the five years from 2012 to 2016. This growth will be driven primarily by SIP trunking and hosted VoIP/UC services.
Other important points from the research include:
- NTT (News - Alert), the perennial leader of residential VoIP market, topped 14 million subscribers in 2Q12.
- Roughly 15 to 20 percent of all new IP PBX lines sold are part of a managed service or outsourced contract, making managed IP PBX the largest segment of business VoIP services
- SIP trunking revenue grew 23 percent in the first half of 2012 compared to the second half of 2011, led by strong activity in North America.
Edited by Brooke Neuman
