VoIP technology has proven to be the key market enabler for cable telephony services and subscriber growth, reports In-Stat. Generally less expensive to provision than more traditional circuit-switched telephony, the increasing availability of VoIP services in North America was directly responsible for an almost two-fold increase in the number of North American subscribers during 2006, the high-tech market research firm says.

“In a growing number of markets around the world, cable TV operators consider telephony service to be an integral part of their telecommunications service bundle,” says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst. “This has led to increasing service availability in North America, Europe, and in a few countries in Asia.”

Voice services continue to be the mainstay for most communication service companies in the U.S. even in the face of all the exciting changes taking place in the market and the explosion of growth opportunities in new areas such as video and broadband. While it is true that the IP revolution combined with competitive and regulatory environment changes have initiated massive change in the voice services market, this does not mean that traditional voice communication, a key medium for effective human interaction over many years, will suddenly disappear.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, U.S. Residential Voice Services Study - Is Voice Still the Killer App?, finds that the market generated revenues of more than $50 billion from the traditional voice services segment in 2006 in the U.S. Revenues from this market segment will increasingly shift to emerging voice services such as VoIP and converged wireline-wireless voice applications by 2013.

As broadband connectivity spreads around the world, so too do the value-added services of VoIP and IPTV.

VoIP is a genuinely disruptive technology and has changed the telecommunications landscape. IPTV, on the other hand, which requires considerably more bandwidth and technical know-how from service providers, is still in its infancy, according to eMarketer's report Broadband Services: VoIP and IPTV.

Pureplay VoIP provider Vonage was the single largest operator in the US at the end of 2006, but this is unlikely to last. Cable MSOs ComCast and Time Warner are growing their VoIP subscriber bases very quickly and will surpass Vonage in 2007.

eMarketer estimates that the number of US VoIP subscribers will rise from 9.8 million at the end of 2006 to 41.3 million by the end of 2011. VoIP subscribers will account for over one-third of all US landline subscriptions in 2010, up from 10% in 2006.

Due to slower than anticipated rollout and take-up of IPTV in the US, eMarketer has revised its estimates down and now forecasts only 4.8 million IPTV subscribers in the US in 2011, up from 300,000 in 2006.

"Early indications suggest VoIP will be very popular worldwide simply because VoIP calls are cheaper," says Ben Macklin, senior analyst and author of the report. Meanwhile, IPTV requires bandwidth, favorable regulatory environments and favorable TV market dynamics, he says.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of “India Fixed Telecoms Market, 2001-2010” to their offering.

The Indian Fixed Telecoms market was worth $8.9 billion at the end of 2006, with 52.9 million total voice connections including VoIP. We anticipate growing fixed line penetration from 18% in 2005 to 22% in 2010, driven by developments in telecommunications infrastructure and improved affordability of fixed telephony by the middle and lower classes. We also expect a surge in take-up of VoIP connections driven by take-up of broadband connections in the country. The network effect of increased connections is expected to result in greater average usage per connection, driving overall ARPU levels for both business and consumer connections.

According to data from In-Stat's market research US Residential VoIP Market Tracker service, more than 10.6 million US households now have at least one active VoIP user, up from approximately 9 million households at the end of Q3. The emergence of the cable operators as a dominant market force seems to have slowed the growth of the client-based VoIP market, with only Skype showing gains in this segment during the 4th Quarter.

Although adoption of VoIP by businesses is widespread across the United States, a study released by Network Instruments found that network engineers often lack the appropriate tools to successfully manage and troubleshoot VoIP performance problems. According to the study, nearly half of the organizations surveyed have implemented the technology, and 32 percent of these organizations lacked the ability to monitor VoIP performance.

In an analysis of surveys from 273 network engineers across the United States, the study found that:

• Nearly 50 percent were concerned with their ability to monitor the quality of VoIP service
• 41 percent were unsure of their network's ability to handle the extra bandwidth consumption from VoIP calls
• 36 percent were concerned with the reliability of their VoIP application during periods of heavy use

Oracle released the results of a global Communications industry survey, conducted on its behalf, by the Economist Intelligence Unit, revealing that over 80 percent of industry executives believe that voice calls will no longer make-up the primary revenue source for communications carriers within six years. Furthermore, over half of the senior executives questioned believe this will happen within the next four years, emphasizing the need for operators to immediately identify and develop new revenue streams to avert steep declines in their business.

Survey results show that world-wide, executives believe that new on-line Voice over IP (VoIP) services, such as Skype, are the greatest threat to the fixed line revenues with 68 percent of respondents identifying VoIP operators as the primary cause of declining revenues.

Additional results include:

• 72 percent of executives believe that introducing new services is the most effective strategy to counter falling voice revenue, much more so than pricing changes or marketing initiatives.
• 65 percent of respondents comment on bundled triple-play offerings as important or critical, emphasizing the importance of the overall service packaging within the communications industry.
• 51 percent of executives say mergers and acquisitions with mobile operators are strategies they are most likely to pursue in the next two years.

ATLANTIC-ACM and Stealth Communications are pleased to announce the “The Dragon Market: VoIP Opportunities in China 2007 – 2011” session at the Voice Peering Forum Spring 2007. The session will be held on Wednesday March 7th at 5:15pm in the Miami Beach Resort & Spa.

Based on the newly published ATLANTIC-ACM report The Dragon Market: VoIP in China 2007-2011, this session will cover forecasts for several different types of VoIP, the underling drivers of VoIP adoption, the regulatory landscape, key statistics about the telecom market, and discussion about wireline, wireless, 3G and other telecom services in China.

China’s telecom industry, fueled by GDP growth of eight- to 10-percent over the next five years, will continue to grow on all fronts. The total number of Chinese broadband subscribers will be 144 million by 2011, and paid VoIP services adoption will dovetail with broadband growth, according to The Dragon Market: VoIP in China 2007 - 2011.

AT&T announces that Forrester rated it as one of the strongest performers in a thorough evaluation of enterprise-class Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers in The Forrester Wave: US Enterprise-Class VoIP Services, Q1 2007 report. One of the earliest providers of a managed WAN- based VoIP offering, AT&T leads all other providers in planned IP Telephony and VoIP feature enhancements for 2007.

In extensive evaluations of leading telecommunications services providers, AT&T's VoIP offerings secured leadership rankings on many of the most important attributes expressed by enterprise buyers, including breadth of offering, IP PBX product and feature enhancements, flexibility (particularly for VoIP interoperability with key PSTN features), hosted VoIP and IP Centrex services, managed IP PBX; VoIP conferencing; SIP Trunking and managed services.

Sonus Networks announced today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain that the Company has surpassed a key milestone in the industry's migration to wireless IP voice. Sonus-based wireless networks worldwide now carry more than 10 billion minutes of voice traffic per month. According to the latest research report entitled, "Packetized Wireless Trunking: 2007 Status Report" by independent research firm iLocus, Sonus carries more than 37% of all wireless packet-based traffic. Sonus' IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-ready solutions currently form the backbone of major wireless networks in the United States and Japan.

"Like their wireline counterparts, wireless network operators are now beginning to embrace IP-based technologies throughout their networks to take advantage of operational savings and to build a foundation for the delivery of enhanced next generation services, and they are turning to Sonus to help realize those benefits," said Basharat Ashai, Research Manager, iLocus. "Sonus has built some of the most sophisticated IP-based wireless networks in the world, carrying billions of minutes of traffic every month and growing rapidly."

Small and medium businesses worldwide feel confused by the multiple and complex range of VoIP solutions, despite all the hype about VoIP’s projected toll cost savings, productivity improvements, and a more professional market presence. Over the past few years, an increasing number of VoIP solutions have come to market that are aimed at the SMB segment. Yet, most SMBs are unable to evaluate and decide which VoIP solution is best for them.

That’s the conclusion from the latest global study by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. “The market opportunity for VoIP solutions is burgeoning for SMBs,” says Sanjeev Aggarwal, AMI-Partners’ New York-based Vice President for SMB Infrastructure Solutions. “Whichever solutions or vendors SMBs choose, most companies will move to VoIP over the next five years—creating a huge opportunity for equipment vendors, service providers, and VARs.”

The total market for business VoIP and IP VPN services will grow from $6.4 billion in 2006 to $15 billion in 2012, according to "Business VoIP Revolution 2007-2012: The Opportunity. The Market. The Players." -- a new study by leading telecommunications research consultancy and benchmarking firm ATLANTIC-ACM.

"Growth in the enterprise VoIP space will be driven by increased mainstream adoption of VoIP among businesses," said Aaron Blazar, ATLANTIC-ACM analyst covering the Business VoIP sector. "As concerns over quality and security fade, VoIP represents the next major wave of communications services adoption in the business community. While these concerns do remain as holdovers from VoIP's early days, they are beginning to subside, setting the stage for rapid adoption beginning in the 2007 to 2008 time frame."

"Business VoIP Revolution 2007-2012: The Opportunity. The Market. The Players." is a comprehensive overview of the enterprise VoIP space, including market statistics and projections, case studies of major players, detailed technology overviews and in-depth analyses of adoption drivers and obstacles. The 150+ page study is affordably priced at $1,495. Interested parties can find more detailed information in the reports section of ATLANTIC-ACM's website at www.atlantic-acm.com/reports/.

While increased use of instant messaging (IM) in the enterprise, along with the proliferation of features such as file sharing and whiteboarding, make voice over IM (VOIM) an attractive option for converged communications, VOIM service providers must tackle ease-of-use and interoperability issues before the technology will become more widespread, according to the latest report published by Light Reading's Enterprise VOIP Insider, a paid research service of CMP Technology's Light Reading.

"Voice Over IM: The Next VOIP Disrupter" examines the VOIM market from the viewpoint of IM service providers, including those that currently provide VOIM services, as well as those that are developing such services for the future. It looks at the issues VOIM service providers must address for the market to succeed, including targeting a customer base, developing a recurring revenue stream, and determining the best ways to drive customer usage. The report also examines features that make VOIM a viable application, possible barriers to usage, and factors that differentiate VOIM service providers.

Voice over Internet Protocol telephone services, which last year counted less than 38 million subscribers worldwide, should have a subscriber base of over 267 million in 2012, according to a new study released by ABI Research.

“Hosted service providers, the pioneers of commercial VoIP, are going to grow to some extent, but it will be cable operators and other broadband providers trying to leverage their high speed data networks who will really push VoIP in the future,” says principal broadband analyst Michael Arden. These operators want to add value to their broadband “pipes,” and they want to generate new revenues over and above what they earn from their basic data services.

While traditional telcos have been slow to embrace VoIP due to their huge investment in conventional telephone networks, their desire for total control of service quality and their fear of upsetting their existing customer relationships, the development of VoIP markets will play out differently in the world’s major regions.

According to a recent report by Dell’Oro Group total PBX revenues are projected to exceed $7.5 billion annually in 2011. Driven by expanding demand, Voice over IP (VoIP) continues to gain in popularity for all businesses, regardless of size.

“Large enterprises have led the way in the deployment of IP telephony, and now we are seeing small and mid-sized business also realizing the benefits of VoIP,” said Alan Weckel, Analyst of IP Telephony Enterprise Research at Dell’Oro Group. “Large enterprises are now testing the waters with Unified Communications solutions that promise to provide users with a cohesive communications experience in which voice, instant messaging, video, and email are integrated together,” Weckel added.