According to the Radicati Group, the market for voice over IP with corporations the world over is very strong.
IP telephony is poised for strong growth worldwide. Over the next four years, the number of worldwide corporate IP telephony lines will increase by over 260 million – nearly 14 times the current installed base.
Revenue in the corporate IP telephony market will total nearly $1.0 billion in 2004. Over the next four years, this revenue will increase substantially, reaching $5.5 billion in 2008. Although overall VoIP revenue will continue to rise annually, the price per user of IP telephony will decline as the technology proliferates.
So while much of the heat we’re seeing in the VoIP market today is geared around consumers, the real play is in big business. Funny. The 80/20 rule never seems to change. If one looks at the efforts from Vonage, one only sees consumers being pursued. AT&T has CallVantage and they also have a business VoIP effort underway, yet CallVantage seems to be what HP consumer products are, a way to keep the brand alive while growing in all other areas. Sure, AT&T will winback consumers who had left them in the past, but their real growth will come from the business sector as it will for MCI, the company that seems to be off the radar when it should no longer be.