CALIFORNIA, USA: Demand for residential and business voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services continues to grow even as spending in other communication areas tightens.

This is according to market research firm Infonetics Research's biannual VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers report, which tracks business and residential/SOHO voice over IP services and includes a North America Business VoIP Services Leadership Matrix that analyzes and ranks the top service providers in the VoIP business services market.

Diane Myers, directing analyst, service provider VoIP and IMS, Infonetics Research, said: “For the first half of 2009, the worldwide VoIP services market grew to $20.7 billion. Residential VoIP services remain healthy, comprising the majority of worldwide VoIP services revenue, and subscribers are up 14 percent from the end of 2008."

"On the business VoIP side, while managed IP PBX revenue growth has slowed in line with IP PBX shipments, we are expecting IP Centrex and hosted UC service revenue to grow 26 percent year-over-year in 2009,” Myers explains.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
IP connectivity services currently make up about a third of total VoIP business service revenue, growing to 40 percent of the total by 2013 (managed IP PBX services and hosted VoIP and UC services make up the balance).
 
The current sweet spot of the North American IP Centrex market is small business (those with fewer than 100 employees).

Roughly two-thirds of all IP Centrex seats sold in the first half of 2009 went to small businesses.
 
While the largest VoIP services opportunities are in North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), demand for VoIP services is growing fast in Asia Pacific and Central and Latin America.
 
For the first half of 2009, Japan’s NTT, France Telecom, and Comcast in North America retain their leadership as the world's largest residential VoIP service providers, together holding nearly 20 percent of the world’s VoIP subscribers.

The number of residential/SOHO VoIP subscribers is forecast to top 225 million by 2013.