SBC Spike Helps Carrier VoIP Surge

A new study from market-research firm Infonetics Research shows that the service provider VoIP equipment market jumped to $592 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 14.5 percent over the third quarter.

The stat is part of Infonetics Service Provider VoIP Equipment and Subscribers market share and forecast report.

“The shift to IP continues, as reflected in the continued rise of SBCs and the decline in trunk media gateways in 2010. SBCs ended 2010 with a phenomenal revenue increase of 42 percent over 2009 due to increases in IP interconnectivity in fixed and mobile networks, growth in the number of VoIP subscribers, and SIP trunking,” said Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.

Despite the strong rally in the fourth quarter, which is typical for the carrier VoIP market, it was not enough to lift the full year 2010 into positive territory, Infonetics said. Worldwide revenue dropped 6.7 percent to $2.21 billion. Still, its a good sign that the market is headed in the right direction. Asia Pacific is the only region to post year-over-year revenue growth in 2010 for service provider VoIP equipment, up 24 percent over the previous year.

GENBAND continues to lead the overall carrier VoIP equipment market, increasing its worldwide revenue lead to 23 percent in 4Q10, the report said.

The service provider VoIP equipment market includes trunk media gateways, SBCs, media servers, softswitches and voice application servers.