After seeing declines in 2009, the business voice-over-IP space is seeing
growth in 2010, according to Infonetics Research, which has released its
updated 2010 VoIP and Unified Communications Services and Subscribers
report.
Overall, revenues in the business VoIP increased 8 percent in the first half
of the year, and are expected to top out at 13 percent above 2009 numbers,
Infonetics noted. Part of that growth is attributable to a growing number of
hosted providers incorporating unified communication elements and mobility
into their standard offerings, which is creating new levels of service
differentiation.
The IP connectivity segment of the business VoIP services market became the
largest segment, surpassing the managed IP PBX and hosted VoIP/UC services
segments, Infonetics noted. In North America, consolidation continues to
drive the segment, with Comcast acquiring New Global Telecom and MegaPath
acquiring Speakeasy and Covad in the first half of the year.
On the residential side, the number of VoIP subscribers grew 10 percent
between the second half of 2009 and the first half of 2010 to 145.4 million,
according to the report.