Telcos to Suffer $36B VoIP Revenue Hit by 2010

TELECOS TO SUFFER $36 BILLION VOIP REVENUE HIT BY 2010
[SOURCE: Telecommunications Online, AUTHOR: Ken Wieland]
According to a new report from Juniper Research, worldwide VoIP revenue is projected to reach an annual US$18 billion by 2010. This growth will be driven, says Juniper, by a combination of replacing existing business circuit-switched leased lines; the lower cost of calls; massive growth in the Chinese telecom market; businesses reaping the network efficiencies of putting voice and data over one network; and, in the words of the Juniper press release, "the realization that integrating voice functionality into business critical IT applications will improve business productivity." Other projections that Juniper throws into the business VoIP mix is that small business broadband connections will reach 40 million lines by 2010 and that hosted VoIP business revenue will reach US$7.6 billion. But despite this new VoIP revenue stream, telcos will still make a net loss in revenue -- courtesy of VoIP’s arrival -- to the tune of an annual US$36 billion. This loss, presumably, is largely down to the fading away of telcos’ more lucrative leased line revenue, although Juniper does not say so explicitly in its press statement. It does add, though, that ‘losses incurred by traditional service providers will be exacerbated by the rise of Internet telephony service providers and VoIP peering houses’.
http://telecommagazine.com/newsglobe/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_1875