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Residential VoIP important for technology's future

27 Nov 2006

By Nick Ames – Direct News

The popularity of VoIP technology within the residential and business sectors is growing steadily, with spending in the residential sector quickly catching up with the spending levels already established in the business sector.

According to research from IT website ZDNet, total VoIP equipment revenue will rise to $11.9bn by 2010 and grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.7 per cent from the $3.95 billion of 2005, with a sizeable percentage coming from the residential market.

Within the residential sector specifically, revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of 31.1 per cent between now and 2010, meaning that it will be worth over $4.1bn in four years' time.

Residential gateways and IP phones are among the key equipment required, while video is likely to extend its reach decisively into the market before long. An increasing number of workers are choosing to operate from home, which is likely to push the popularity of VoIP up further, for example as a business conferencing tool.

A total of 151.2 million residential VoIP subscribers are expected by 2010, of which many are expected to be people using the service both for business and pleasure.

Shara Evans, CEO of Australian research firm Market Clarity, recently identified a possible change in the tide for VoIP and remarked that : "There are close to 200 VoIP providers of different kinds in Australia now, and the majority are targeting residential customers, either exclusively or in addition to SME services."

However, the business market and the residential market provide different challenges to the supplier due to the differing demands of the end users. Residential users may be concerned primarily with cost savings and, while these are undoubtedly a consideration of businesses too, they may have more developed considerations that also include service level agreements and technical services support.

Businesses are ordinarily more concerned with the benefits of the technology itself , such as the possibilities of unified messaging, workstation conferencing and the general concept of integrating technologies relating to computing and voice.

These differing demands need to be catered for accordingly by the supplier, although applications, quality, clarity and price factors will still have a major influence on take-up.

The future of residential VoIP looks bright. It may be that the task for providers becomes how to marry the demands of residential offerings with those of corporate offerings, given the changing landscape of the workforce and its working habits.

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