Voice Over Internet Protocol has quickly risen above all competition to become the undisputed king in waiting of communication for both the business and residential world's alike, effortlessly mixing incredible audio quality and video transfer capabilities with unbelievable flexibility.
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.
In 2010 the number of Voice Over IP subscribers (including over access lines and other broadband lines) hit 157 million - an increase of 12.6% - with the number of residential and SOHO providers growing 14% in 2011 to over 178 million. This number looks set to grow to over 270 million by 2015.
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 the case of France and Japan in particular, the main driver behind the rise in Voice Over IP coverage has been the introduction of fibre based broadband services. In France in particular nearly 95% of subscribers also have a Voice Over IP service.
But despite potential market saturation in France, there are still huge opportunities elsewhere, with China - the world's largest broadband market - only having one bundled Voice Over IP service for every 20 broadband subscriptions in 2010.
As well as this, mobile Voip usage is also growing at an incredible rate thanks to the ever increasing numbers of Smartphones on the market offering Voip services. In 2011 alone, active mobile Voip subscriber rates tripled to over 29 million from just 9 million in 2010.
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.
In 2010 the number of Voice Over IP subscribers (including over access lines and other broadband lines) hit 157 million - an increase of 12.6% - with the number of residential and SOHO providers growing 14% in 2011 to over 178 million. This number looks set to grow to over 270 million by 2015.
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 the case of France and Japan in particular, the main driver behind the rise in Voice Over IP coverage has been the introduction of fibre based broadband services. In France in particular nearly 95% of subscribers also have a Voice Over IP service.
But despite potential market saturation in France, there are still huge opportunities elsewhere, with China - the world's largest broadband market - only having one bundled Voice Over IP service for every 20 broadband subscriptions in 2010.
As well as this, mobile Voip usage is also growing at an incredible rate thanks to the ever increasing numbers of Smartphones on the market offering Voip services. In 2011 alone, active mobile Voip subscriber rates tripled to over 29 million from just 9 million in 2010.
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 cloud telephony to find out how much you can save with your Voip communications click here voip for business