VoIP revenue hit $15.8bn in 2006

VoIP services raked in $15.8 billion (£7.9 billion) in 2006 after revenues doubled in a year, according to new figures.

A study by Infonetics Research found that hosted VoIP services continued to grow faster than IP PBX systems thanks to strong take-up by residential users, but businesses are expected to fuel continued growth.

"Asia Pacific has been leading the VoIP services scene for a couple of years, with Japan's SoftBank pioneering the service and taking a strong lead, but the EMEA and North America regions have gained some ground at the expense of Asia in the last two years," said Stephane Teral, principal analyst at Infonetics Research and author of the report.

"The Latin American-Caribbean region is also posting impressive growth and gaining share," he added.

Results from the study included that worldwide revenue from residential hosted VoIP services jumped 68 per cent between 2005 and 2006, while managed IP PBX service revenue grew 45 per cent.

SoftBank was found to be the largest VoIP service provider in the world due to huge take-up of the service in Japan, but European and American companies are seeing strong growth.

Posted on: 2007-08-10, in: General VoIP

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