VoIP plugs into strong growth

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networking has finally hit the mainstream corporate market, with sales of converged equipment expected to rocket by 305 per cent to $5bn (£2.7bn) between 2003 and 2007.

According to forecasts by Infonetics Research, sales of voice-data convergence products totalled $338m (£183m) in the fourth quarter of 2003, a 31 per cent increase over the third quarter.

The report said there have been many VoIP customer wins and service rollouts from top-tier carriers, including AT&T, BT and France Telecom.

Lead analyst on the report, Kevin Mitchell, said in a statement: "Some of these moves are baby steps, but it shows that VoIP is in their plans and creates momentum, which can help make the second half of this year and 2005 solid investment periods as carriers ramp up subscribers and service revenue."

Matthias Machowinski, co-author of the report, said that despite some important rollouts at the very end of the year, the voice application server market did not live up to expectations in 2003.

"However, now that carriers have begun publicly unveiling and marketing hosted IP telephony services that have been in development for the past 12 months, this segment is finally positioned for a take-off in 2004," he added.