Voice-over-Wi-Fi market trends are "moving the goalposts" for Wi-Fi equipment makers, experts warn.

ABI Research explained that no single vendor owns all the intellectual property required for a complete offering.

The winners in the sector, therefore, will be those players able to forge effective partnerships, rather than employing mere joint marketing announcements.

ABI Research said that key ecosystem partnerships include working relationships with PBX manufacturers, fixed mobile convergence players such as DiVitas Networks and Agito Networks, and handset manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola.

Stan Schatt, ABI Research vice president and research director, said: "In some cases, vendors that sell their own IP PBXs and voice-over-Wi-Fi equipment are going to be limited to their own installed bases. Competitors are not willing to cooperate to extend interoperability."

The analyst added that a partner's product must have some degree of integration with voice-over-Wi-Fi equipment to be a part of the ecosystem.

The strength of an equipment vendor's overall solution is directly proportional to the strength of its voice-over-Wi-Fi ecosystem partners.

ABI stated that the overall voice-over-Wi-Fi market is growing " significantly". The number of access points used to handle voice traffic will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 93 per cent to nearly 56,000 access points by 2012.