Current and Future Development of VoIP

The VoIP landscape has changed considerably in the last few years. The easy availability of broadband access to the Internet, coupled with Herculean leaps in technology, makes VoIP service a viable alternative to traditional telephone and PBX offerings.

Today's VoIP services offer several features and options not possible a few years ago. The voice quality is also much better, largely due to the delivery speed differences in high-speed Internet access versus dial-up service. VoIP service providers now have cost-efficient plans tailored to the needs of businesses and residential users. Unlike before, in the enterprise environment, VoIP use has grown rapidly. According to a report by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Synergy Research Group, VoIP sales surged last year by almost 90%. This trend is continuing and in the first quarter of this year, VoIP sales grew by 17%, according to the Synergy Research Group. Some industry watchers predict that VoIP is where the next telecommunications motherload will be found. According to a recent Radicati Group study (2006), VoIP-related spending will increase from $1 billion this year to $5.5 billion by 2008. That study also reports the number of corporate telephone lines that use VoIP will leap from 4% to 44% by 2008.

More to that, Cablevision report its fourth quarter earnings added 130,000 new VoIP customers, up just 7,000 from the previous quarter. The company also added, 94,000 new broadband customers, up from 81,000 added in the previous quarter. For 2005, Cablevision added 341,793 broadband subscribers and 458,653 VoIP subscribers. Time Warner had also experienced similar growth for its broadband and VoIP services. Some of the smaller players are experiencing triple digit growth in their voice subscribers According to UBS research estimates, there were 5.1 million cable voice users at year end, up 63% annually and 14% sequentially. Telegeography also estimates that nearly 900,000 new subscribers were added in the final three months of 2005, and cable providers now account for nearly 52% of the total market. Their total differs from UBS by about 700,000 subscribers. Telegeography says that there are 4.5 million VoIP subscribers in the US. Phone companies come in with 11% share of the market, and independents like Vonage have 37% of the market. They are forecasting that there will be 7.9 million VoIP subscribers by end of 2006, and revenues will hit $2.1 billion. That is up from about a billion dollars in sales for 2005. Furthermore, within the last four years, VoIP minutes increased from less than 0.5 to 2% of outbound international calls, according to research from TeleGeography. Additionally, predictions as to the size of the market itself vary, with Allied Business Intelligence projecting the VoIP market to grow from $3.7 billion in 2000 to $12.3 billion in 2006 and Synergy Research Group projecting the VoIP equipment market to grow to $13.3 billion by 2005.

All the percentages and numbers above only mean one thing, VoIP is the next big hit and nothing is able to stop the growing trend of VoIP. This maturing technology had developed lots of opportunities for some companies while users can grab a hand full of benefits as well.