IP-Based VoIP Making Major Impact: Report

July 12, 2002 -- Technology research think tank Allied Business Intelligence Inc. (AlliedWorld.com) announced the results of a new study on Thursday, suggesting that voice over Internet Protocol technologies may have reached the point where enterprise buyers expect that future telephone systems will be IP-based.

According to ABI, enterprises are reluctant to invest in circuit-switched technology that might quickly become obsolete. Users are gradually becoming accustomed to premise and hosted IP-PBX solutions, driven more by the need for expanded phone systems than the desire for extended IP features.

But ABI says the report, titled "IP-PBX, Hosted Solutions and IP Telephone Sets: The Evolution of Enterprise Networks," shows that IP-based systems will represent over 50 percent of enterprise PBX seats shipped by 2003.

"In the next few years, sales of IP-enabled and hybrid systems will remain strong as businesses add new, IP-based capacity to their legacy systems," said ABI Senior Consulting Analyst and report author Julia Mermelstein. "Beginning in 2005, we will see the sale of all-IP PBXs take off as more and larger enterprises complete the evolution to IP-centric phone systems."

ABI projects shipments of IP-PBX seats will grow from 1.9 million in 2001 to 42 million in 2007.