VoIP Will Dominate Enterprise Phone Systems -- Eventually

Internet-based telecommunications is growing in popularity, but voice over Internet protocol phones are not expected to surpass traditional systems in the enterprise until 2009, a market research firm said Thursday.

Most enterprises today use traditional PBX phone systems to route calls to individual offices. Those systems, however, are gradually being replaced with newer VoIP PBX technology that enables companies to combine voice and data services, such as accessing voice mail through a notebook.

Shipments of the VoIP PBX phones are expected to grow at an annual compounded rate of more than 20 percent through 2009, while use of the older systems decline about the same rate, Insight Research said. As a result, the older technology will dominate the installed based until 2009.

PBX businesses this year are expected to ship about $4.3 billion in equipment, Insight said.

Cost is a major factor for the gradual adoption of VoIP systems, Insight President Bob Rosenberg said. The price of IP phones is about 25 percent higher than the older alternative."VoIP never was and never will be the least expensive way to deliver voice to the enterprise -- but the allure of VoIP's rich applications (like video telephony) will slowly convert enterprise legacy customers," Rosenberg said in a statement.