VoIP News: September 2010

Small and medium-sized businesses are replacing their circuit-based telephone switchboards with internet-based private branch exchanges (IP PBXs), a trend that is "transforming" the telephony landscape. That is according to TMCnet, which suggested that IP PBX allows companies to get the most benefit from communications over both local and wide-area networks. "With widespread proliferation of VoIP in the telephony world, SMBs are quickly tapping the benefits IP telephony," said the site's contributing editor Ashok Bindra.

Larger firms are adopting VoIP services as part of their move towards cloud computing, it has been suggested. According to Carl Weinschenk, hosted VoIP services have traditionally been aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, but their adoption is increasingly coming to be seen as a valuable exercise for larger enterprises as well. The technology expert wrote on IT Business Edge that hosted IP PBX services are being deployed on "massively scalable cloud architectures", something that makes them ideally suited to firms replacing their legacy systems, no matter how big they are.

A number of businesses will be able to take advantage of VoIP services thanks to plans by BT to extend its super-fast broadband network. The internet service provider (ISPs) has announced its intention to deliver high-speed connections to 33,000 more homes and businesses across the country as part of a £2. 5 billion project.

VoIP services still have plenty of room to grow in the decade ahead, according to one expert. Doug Mohney, contributing editor at TMCnet. com, suggested that VoIP providers are likely to be some of the key growth players in future years.

The global market for business VoIP services will double between now and 2015, a new report by ABI Research has shown. According to the analyst's predictions, the value of the market including SIP trunking, hosted IP PBX and managed services will exceed $20 billion within five years' time. Last year, the market displayed strong growth, despite the economic situation, as companies looked at ways of cutting their communications costs.