Telcos snapping up VoIP gear

Telecoms carriers are showing a growing appetite for voice over IP, judging by their uptake of new equipment.

Worldwide revenue from next-generation voice equipment rose 36 per cent between 2003 and 2004 to reach a total of $1.71bn, according to Infonetics Research's recent report Service Provider Next Gen Voice Equipment.

Sales should continue to grow at a rate of 36 per cent annually over the next five years to hit $5.9bn, Infonetics predicts.

North America is the biggest consumer of equipment with 48 per cent of the market and 1.1 million residential and SOHO customers subscribing to VoIP services. Infonetics estimates this number will grow to 17.4 million by 2008.

Asia is next in line with 28 per cent of revenues for next-gen voice equipment in 2004, followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa with 19 per cent.

Carrier adoption of VoIP equipment in Europe is set to "start taking shape this year", Infonetics Research analyst Kevin Mitchell said in a statement.

Mitchell continued: "It's hard to find a carrier not modernising their network with VoIP or planning to do so."

However, according to IDC, many fixed-line telephone companies in Western Europe are not embracing new technologies such as VoIP. Jill Finger Gibson, research director at IDC, told silicon.com the telecom old guard "have their head in the sand" when it comes to VoIP and "haven't been making it clear to the market they have a strategy for" the decline in fixed voice traffic.

As for vendors, Infonetics named Sonus the market share leader for media gateways in 2004 with Cisco coming in second. Nortel led the way for the softswitch market.