Multimedia VoIP to multiply

Returns from multimedia IP telephony solutions in 2014 will more than triple by 2009, Infonetics Research has said.

The communications industry market research firm has forecast that worldwide IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) equipment vendor revenue will rise to $1.44 billion (£950 million) in 2014.

Income from multimedia VoIP solutions equipment totalled $426 million (£281 million) in 2009, with the year's fourth quarter up 92 per cent on the previous quarter.

The fourth quarter of 2009 was also the first quarter in which revenue from IMS equipment for mobile networks outstripped that of IMS equipment for fixed-line networks.

Diane Myers, directing analyst for service provider VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research, said that the company expects "strong annual growth for at least the next five years" from IMS.

Deployments of LTE is expected to drive IMS growth from 2012, with telecommunications industry leaders currently looking to agree on a standard for rolling out voice and SMS over 4G.

The likes of Wi-Max and LTE could eventually see high-definition mobile VoIP phones supersede traditional mobile voice services, technology news and reviews website PCWorld said recently.