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VoIP will weather global downturn
25/04/08
A
new report from analyst Grant Thornton suggests that VoIP growth
will continue over the next few years despite a downturn in the
global economy.
The analyst says
there should be around £11bn in global VoIP revenues by 2010, with
telecom and IT companies fighting over who get it and over 250
million worldwide VoIP subscribers.
Migration from fixed line to mobile and VoIP services is anticipated
to increase "exponentially" over the coming years and will result in
a "raft" of consolidation in the sector throughout 2008, signaling
the death of traditional telephony. G-T cites the doubling of the
VoIP subscriber base in 2006 and four fold in the last two years as
just one reason for the change.
Large telcos are expected to make strategic acquisitions of
independent software developers looking to consolidate their VoIP
offerings. Incumbent operators are expected to offset declines in
traditional voice revenues and retain customers by grabbing up VoIP
software developers. Others snapped up in consolidation may be
independent residential and enterprise ISPs and resellers.
Security remains a major concern, with issues including include
quality of service issues, reliability, scalability and the
development of industry regulation also potential barriers to
growth.
Nick Gibson, editor
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