The Health of VoIP and Unified Communications

In the fourth quarter of 2012, enterprises like unified communications provider Teo noticed something: the VoIP market had grown quite nicely. Technology marches on, making VoIP more affordable and provide clearer communication quality, which benefits those who use it significantly.

According to a study from Infonetics (News - Alert) titled, “Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers report,” global sales of VoIP equipment reached $800 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. This is due in large part to IP multimedia subsystems (IMS), which made up 40 percent of the growth, but the growth hasn’t stopped there.

In fact, there are predictions that the market will continue to expand in the coming years, reaching $337 billion worldwide by 2018. We should be seeing VoIP and unified communications suites continue to be adopted around the world, with smaller firms implementing the systems more quickly than larger enterprises are.

"As we predicted, after three years of annual declines, the carrier VoIP and IMS equipment market turned the corner in 2012, growing 9 percent over the previous year due to strong IMS sales," says Diane Myers, a principal analyst at Infonetics Research, in a statement. "It's still early days for IMS equipment and applications for LTE (News - Alert), but a handful of operators are placing orders that are positively impacting revenue."

Additionally, both VoIP and UC are now being used in a variety of industries. Healthcare, for example, has benefitted significantly from doctors being able to speak with patients’ located long distances away from them. This has been a real time saver (as well as live saver, in some cases), and the addition of video makes it even easier for physicians to check on and speak with patients in real-time.

Whether it’s for healthcare, business communications, or even home use, VoIP and UC has been seeing a nice upswing, and all signs are pointing up. It makes communicating clearer and quicker, which is important no matter what it’s needed for, so we can expect to see it increase for years to come.