Thought I would share an excerpt from an interesting research report released by IDC

Sept. 27, 2004--After years of hype, VOIP has made the shift from an emerging technology to a viable business solution. Although the consumer market has attracted the most attention from the press, VOIP is gaining accelerated business adoption. The market for hosted IP voice services among US businesses is expected to reach nearly $60 million by the end of 2004. IDC projects a compound annual growth rate of 282% to reach $7.6 billion in 2008.

The fastest growing VOIP market is hosted IP voice services for business customers. Hosted IP voice services are fundamentally different from PBXes because capital expenditure is avoided, maintenance contracts are unnecessary, and management is fully outsourced to a secure, central location. In addition, the customer is assured of instant access to the latest upgrades in both hardware and software.

Full release: Enterprise Adoption of Hosted IP Voice Leads VOIP Revolution, IDC Says

Enterprise Adoption of Hosted IP Voice