Study: VoIP going mainstream?

A new study from Frost & Sullivan reveals that wholesale and retail world voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) traffic volume exceeded 6 billion and 15 billion minutes respectively in 2000. Although growth rates will vary across world regions, the study projects that VoIP will account for approximately 75 percent of world voice services by 2007.

The global VoIP services market will enter a new growth phase, as indicated by increased VoIP traffic and the entrance into the marketplace by two of North America’s largest telecommunication companies - AT&T and MCI WorldCom

This trend is a clear sign that VoIP services are bound to become a mainstream technology.

"Until recently, VoIP was considered primarily a consumer solution, targeted at a limited number of cost-conscious, quality-indifferent user groups,” says Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst, Elka Popova.

With their resources and large customer bases, big telecommunications service providers are likely to drive traffic volume growth, improve the quality reputation of the service, lobby for favorable regulatory treatment, and invest heavily in infrastructure expansion”.

According to Popova, a significant development in the VoIP services industry is increasing enterprise adoption of VoIP services.

"A major driver for enterprise penetration will be the introduction of high-quality VoIP solutions targeted specifically at enterprise end users by large new entrants such as AT&T and MCIWorldcom in the U.S. and GlobalOne and KPNQwest in Europe," she adds. This ongoing research is part of the World VoIP Services Subscription, which includes semi-annual updates on world VoIP service markets and studies on related voice and data convergence issues.