Voip has quickly proven itself to be not just a viable option for business and residential communications, but also as an incredible leap forward into a future of communication where high quality audio and video transfer, substantially reduced call rates and incredible flexibility come as standard.
But as the saying goes, you can have too much of a good thing - and that it seems is what may be happening to the world of Voip - with certain sectors facing the challenge of having to ensure that market saturation does not become a reality in the near future.
Time for some stats to back up the facts - beginning with Voice Over IP subscriber numbers. In 2010 the number rose by over 12% to reach one hundred and fifty seven million. As well as this, residential provider numbers grew by almost 15% in 2011 to just under one hundred and eighty million.
There is no surprise that the USA leads the table for the most active subscriber numbers - followed closely by Japan and France - with the inadequately connected UK somewhat adrift of the competition in tenth place.
In France and Japan, the introduction of fibre based broadband services have been the main driver behind adoption, with over 93% of broadband subscribers in France also having a Voice Over IP service, a statistic which has resulted in that particular segment to suffer from market saturation.
But as with everything in life, when one door closes another one opens. And so even if France and Japan and even the USA get close to saturation point anytime soon, there is still, quite literally, a whole world of opportunity out there. In China alone in 2010 there was only one packaged Voice Over IP service for every twenty subscriptions.
And if further re-assurances were needed just take a quick look at the number of Smartphones endlessly making their way onto the market, all ready and waiting to be equipped with the latest Voip subscriptions. That is if the fact that the subscriber rates tripling in 2011 is anything to go by...
And so there you have it. Some market sectors will, evidently, reach saturation point before others - but regardless of if and when that happens there will still be plenty left to go around. In the mean time, the only question that any business should be asking themselves is, do we have the best Voice Over IP service provider on the market? And if you've not yet considered that question, you need to step your game up.
But as the saying goes, you can have too much of a good thing - and that it seems is what may be happening to the world of Voip - with certain sectors facing the challenge of having to ensure that market saturation does not become a reality in the near future.
Time for some stats to back up the facts - beginning with Voice Over IP subscriber numbers. In 2010 the number rose by over 12% to reach one hundred and fifty seven million. As well as this, residential provider numbers grew by almost 15% in 2011 to just under one hundred and eighty million.
There is no surprise that the USA leads the table for the most active subscriber numbers - followed closely by Japan and France - with the inadequately connected UK somewhat adrift of the competition in tenth place.
In France and Japan, the introduction of fibre based broadband services have been the main driver behind adoption, with over 93% of broadband subscribers in France also having a Voice Over IP service, a statistic which has resulted in that particular segment to suffer from market saturation.
But as with everything in life, when one door closes another one opens. And so even if France and Japan and even the USA get close to saturation point anytime soon, there is still, quite literally, a whole world of opportunity out there. In China alone in 2010 there was only one packaged Voice Over IP service for every twenty subscriptions.
And if further re-assurances were needed just take a quick look at the number of Smartphones endlessly making their way onto the market, all ready and waiting to be equipped with the latest Voip subscriptions. That is if the fact that the subscriber rates tripling in 2011 is anything to go by...
And so there you have it. Some market sectors will, evidently, reach saturation point before others - but regardless of if and when that happens there will still be plenty left to go around. In the mean time, the only question that any business should be asking themselves is, do we have the best Voice Over IP service provider on the market? And if you've not yet considered that question, you need to step your game up.
About the Author:
Saul Saresi writes regularly about Voip systems and technology for his website which can be found here hosted voip solution to find out how much you can save with your Voip communications click here voip for business
