Electro/Telecom Industry Trends
VoIP Markets Surge 2001 MultiMedia Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast
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While still in its infancy, the Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) market already enjoys growth in the wide area network (WAN) and is positioned for robust growth in the enterprise, according to the 2001 MultiMedia Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast, a publication produced annually by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). The burgeoning VoIP equipment market, which surged 488 percent in 1999, grew another 119 percent in 2000 to total $1.7 billion.
Driving this robust growth is the efficiency derived from a unified network for voice, data and video. VoIP enables users to carry voice traffic over an IP network. This provides greater efficiency for enterprises by obviating multiple networks. Savings come in both the installation and the management of one unified network within the enterprise.
TIA distinguishes between Internet Telephony and VoIP. Although similar, they are not strictly interchangeable for the purpose of this study, because they can operate in different networks to different service levels. Internet telephony comprises three types of voice service over the public, unmanaged Internet: PC-to-PC, PC-to-phone, and phone-to-phone. VoIP use by an enterprise connotes voice traffic over managed Intranets and Extranets, and from there to the Internet as quality of service improves.
"As end-users understand the efficiencies of unified networks, demand for VoIP will increase," stated TIA President Matthew J. Flanigan. "Early adopters of the technology appear to be tech-savvy organizations, such as academic institutions, which are eager to implement and reap the benefits of the newest technologies," continued Flanigan.
The TIA report details both historical and forecasted segment-by-segment statistical breakdowns and analyses of the communications industry. It also includes a discussion of applications/product migration from the enterprise to network services, data for spending on professional services in domestic and international markets, distribution of call-center spending by application, the market outlook for unified messaging and much more.
Source: TIA