A just-released report from Dell'Oro Group tells us that VoIP continues to gain ground in the enterprise PBX market. According to the Dell’Oro report, the number of VoIP lines shipped in Q3 04 grew to more than 2.1 million. These numbers represent a 14 percent increase quarter-over-quarter and a 39 percent increase over the same quarter last year. Traditional (non-IP) lines gained only four percent to 9.6 million, as VoIP is increasingly supplanting traditional lines in businesses. The third quarter also saw total PBX line shipments up six percent quarter-over-quarter.

According to Steve Raab, Director of IP Telephony Research at Dell’Oro Group, “Currently one in five lines shipping is VoIP. Considering the total installed base of PBX lines, cumulative VoIP shipments represent two percent of lines in use today, indicating that while VoIP has gained some market acceptance, obviously much of the opportunity in this market transition is still to come.”

Dell’Oro also ranked the top six vendors by total worldwide PBX lines shipped. Nortel ranked first overall, with a 12% quarter on quarter growth surge. The rest of the group is as follows (growth percentage in parentheses):

Avaya (17%)
Siemens (9%)
Alcatel (-4%)
NEC (30%)
Cisco (8%)

While two percent may seem like an insignificant number, it should be noted that the VoIP industry is relatively young, and any gains against traditional TDM-based PBX market share are encouraging. The past few years have been quite a roller-coaster ride, and the fact that enterprises are choosing VoIP at faster rates than traditional solutions speaks volumes about an industry that only now accelerating on its trip “up the hockey stick.”