Industry news

VoIP to reach £13.5bn, says analyst

Total revenue for the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) industry worldwide will reach £13.5 billion, one analyst has said.

Grant Thorton revealed a boom in the number of mergers and acquisitions in the telecoms sector combined with firm's eagerness to adopt the technology will see VoIP continue to boom.

Sarika Patel, the analyst's head of technology, said VoIP customers doubled in 2006 and increased four fold after that, so its number of users is likely to reach 250 million within by 2010.

"VoIP is no longer next generation telephony, it is here now, and 2008 should see strategic acquisitions of independent software developers and ISPs by large telecoms looking to consolidate their VoIP offerings," she added.

Meanwhile, market researcher iLocus revealed last month that despite the risk of recession, firms had no choice but to "build out" their IP infrastructure and VoIP will continue to boom.