|
Hosted IP Telephony and VoIP Access Service Market
22/04/08
The North
American hosted Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) market continues to evolve as new market
entrants deploy solutions targeted at specific enterprise segments,
according to a new study by analyst Research and Markets.
The North
American hosted Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and voice over IP (VoIP)
access services market is expected to continue to grow over the next
several years. Over the past 24 months, the availability of hosted
IP private branch eXchange (IP PBX) or hosted IP Centrex services
has increased manifold, thereby stimulating its adoption among
enterprise customers.
The key value
proposition of hosted IP telephony resides in its ability to offer a
fully outsourced solution to small and medium enterprises that lack
the financial prowess to implement and manage telephony in-house.
Moreover, the greater scalability and business continuity associated
with network-based/hosted solutions are also driving greater
enterprise interest in the service.
However,
despite the continuing improvements in IP telephony reliability and
quality, a number of enterprises remain skeptical of the
technology’s ability to exactly match the level of reliability
inherent in public switched telephone network (PSTN) networks.
Furthermore,
the E911 compliance issues continue to hamper the rapid adoption of
VoIP, including hosted IP telephony, among a large number of
enterprises. "While the benefits of VoIP are widely understood, the
reliability and integration concerns often lead to delayed adoption
of the technology by enterprise customers," notes the analyst of
this research service. "A number of hosted IP telephony vendors have
had to scale back on their deployments during the period 2006 to
2007 in order to address service quality issues."
Need to Reduce
Capital Expenditures Stimulates Demand for Hosted IP Telephony and
VoIP Access Services
While hosted
IP telephony services have typically been targeted toward the SMEs
enterprises, their benefits span beyond these two segments to
include large enterprises. Various large enterprises (firms with 500
or more employees), including those with remote offices as well as
telecommuting workforce, are likely to reap the cost savings
associated with hosted IP telephony.
Additionally,
the advanced functionality associated with network-based voice
services, combined with the costly upgrades related to IP PBXs,
further increases hosted IP telephony’s appeal among certain large
enterprises. VoIP access services allow large, multi-site enterprise
customers, which are yet to upgrade voice infrastructure at all of
their operating locations, to defer IT/Telecom capital expenditures
while enjoying the cost savings and advanced applications associated
with IP telephony.
"Demand for
hosted IP telephony is expected to continue to grow over the next
several years as enterprises seek to reduce costs and gain access to
advanced applications such as unified communications," says the
analyst. "The increase in hosted IP telephony revenues is expected
to be driven by both the rising demand for outsourced telephony as
well as the increase in average monthly revenue per user, as
organizations subscribe to premium features such as fixed-mobile
convergence and auto-attendant capabilities."
For more
information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c89381
Nick Gibson, editor
|
