VoIP Service Provider Gear Sales To Hit $2 Billion This Year: Survey

Service provider Voice over IP (VoIP) equipment sales are booming, as providers gear-up to meet growing market demand, according to Synergy Research Group.

Synergy reports that the market for service provider VoIP equipment will grow 61% this year, almost reaching $2 billion. Sales are being largely driven by a red-hot softswitch market. Softswitch sales are expected to grow at a 46.1% compound annual growth rate over the next four years.

Much of these sales are being fueled by class 5 residential phone service growth, and not just in North America. Synergy observes that that it is a global trend, noting rapid market adoption in Japan and Western Europe as well as the U.S. Traditional telecommunications carriers have been slow to catch on to the new technology, Synergy president and CEO Jeremy Duke says, much to their detriment and to the benefit of start-ups.

"VoIP has enabled the success of start-up phone companies by significantly lowering the barriers of entry," Duke said in a statement. "The fresh wave of competition has revolutionized the phone industry and is now forcing the traditional Service Providers to rethink their product offerings and speed up their investments in VoIP equipment."