VoIP, UC Market to Reach $88 Billion by 2018

According to Infonetics Research, the VoIP and unified communications (UC) market will grow to $88 billion by 2018. The research house says business VoIP growth is being strengthened by adoption of SIP trunking, cloud services, and hosted UC among mid-market and larger enterprises.

• The global business and residential VoIP services market grew 8% in 2013 from 2012, to $68 billion.
• SIP trunking grew 50% in 2013 from the prior year, driven predominantly by activity in North America; EMEA is expected to be a strong contributor in 2014.
• Sales of hosted PBX and UC services rose 13% in 2013 over 2012, and seats grew 35% due to continued demand for enterprise cloud-based services.
• Global residential VoIP subscribers totaled 212 million in 2013, up 8% year-over-year.
• Managed services are benefitting from the continued adoption of IP PBXs; roughly 10%-20% of new IP PBX lines sold are part of a managed service or outsourced contract.
• Infonetics expects continued strong worldwide growth in VoIP services revenue through 2018, when it is expected to reach $88 billion.