Infonetics Research recently published three VoIP and Unified Communications (News - Alert) reports, two of which focused on IP-PBX vendor ratings and VoIP and UC market highlights. While these industries were not immune to the impact of the global recession, 2010 certainly promises a better year.

According to Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research (News - Alert), 'From our IP-PBX survey, it appears that businesses are increasingly embracing a hosted services model, as their capacity needs will depend on how robust the economic recovery is, and hosted services allow them to more easily ramp their capacity needs up and down without a huge cash layout for equipment.'

Diane Myers, directing analyst for service provider VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research, concurs, noting that residential/SOHO VoIP services will make up the lion's share - or 75 percent - of total VoIP service revenue.

There was an increase in business VoIP service revenue growth in late 2009 and service providers are reporting increasing interested in hosted VoIP services across all sizes of businesses.

"We expect this trend to continue as more companies turn to hosted services for their voice needs, with business VoIP services making up almost a third of all VoIP service revenue by 2014,' said Myers.

Highlights from the IP-PBX (News - Alert) Enterprise Survey show that most phone extensions in the market today are delivered by way of IP-PBXs. Businesses expect to increase their phone extensions at a slightly higher-than-normal growth rate over the next two years, which is largely driven by the hiring and growing that has followed the recession.

Applications expenditures are expected to rise 14 percent in 2010 and will play a crucial role in increasing an organization's efficiency and employee productivity. Cisco (News - Alert) continues to lead the list of deployed IP-PBX vendors as 18 percent of respondents have Cisco currently installed.

Highlights from VoIP and UC Services Market Survey demonstrate that service provider revenue from residential/SOHO and business VoIP services has increased 20 percent between 2008 and 2009 to $41.6 billion. IP connectivity services are the fastest growing segment, followed by hosted VoIP and unified communication services and managed IP-PBX services.

The sweet spot of the North American IP Centrex services market will continue to be small businesses, although service providers continue to sign new customers with more than 100 employees. NTT, Comcast (News - Alert), and France Telecom are the world's largest VoIP service providers, together holding roughly 20 percent of the world's residential and SOHO VoIP subscribers.

ConnectMeVoice is one company that will certainly benefit from the market outlook presented by Infonetics Research. The company delivers hosted PBX solutions that offer businesses significant benefit over traditional telephone services, including convenience, cost-savings and a professional presentation.
 

For more, check out the Hosted PBXchannel on TMCnet.