Internet Telephone Use on the Rise for Businesses
|
|
CREDIT: Dreamstime.com
|
Small business's use of online telephone services, specifically broadband IP telephony, is headed for a dramatic rise over the next five years, a new study finds.
According to research from In-Stat, spending on broadband IP telephony, which is used to transport voice telephone calls over an IP network, could increase 85 percent by 2015 for businesses with fewer than five employees.
The survey also found that the use of application-based Voiceover IPs (VoIP) is increasing, with a 50 percent jump expected for all businesses over the next four years.
In-Stat research analyst Greg Potter said using such services can present both pluses and minuses for a business.
Primary among the advantages are "the low monthly service fee and negligible costs for long distance,” Potter said in a prepared release. On the other hand, “it does not typically come with the service-level agreements and quality of service afforded by other solutions, which are general requirements for enterprise and medium-sized businesses.”
The study anticipated that businesses with between 100 and 1,000 employees will increase their VoIP spending 10 percent by 2015. The professional services industry by itself is expected to spend more than $3 billion on these services in 2013.
The In-Stat research examined analyses and forecasts of the market for business IP communications – including unified communications, VoIP and Fixed Mobile Convergence – for companies of all sizes and in all industries.
