VoIP Market Set to Double

By Jelani Harper
Updated: July 12, 2011

A number of statistics have indicated that the market for VoIP has been steadily expanding, and is projected to double within five years.

Research firm Point Topic released a report stating that globally, fixed-line VoIP services burgeoned 12.6 percent in 2010. Reuters calculated the market’s worldwide revenue at $17.3 billion for the year, while Point Topic projects its revenues should reach almost $40 billion within the coming five years.

Even the United States Federal Communications Commission disclosed in March of 2011 that aggregate use of VoIP had risen 21 percent by June of 2010.

“The growth of VoIP has been bumpy but shows signs of acceleration,” Point Topic senior analyst John Bosnell said. “VoIP has all the hallmarks of a classic substitution commodity. We expect there to be over three quarters of a billion fixed line broadband subscribers by the end of 2015; in theory all of them are targets for VoIP.”

VoIP’s ascendancy may be tempered, however, by a number of variables which are difficult to calculate. Several subscribers use mobile phones and have no fixed line service, while according to Bosnell, Skype has approximately 150 million users but generates revenue much lower than VoIP.

“If Skype continues to grow as it has been and manages to keep its ARPU at the current level, then it will be generating in the region of $2 billion a year by the stort of 2016,” Bosnell said.
 

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