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Wireless VoIP Gaining Traction in Business Market

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., February 8, 2005 - Wireless VoIP implementation is beginning to occur in the business market, according to In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). In a recent survey of more than 300 mid-size businesses and large-enterprises, 23% of decision-maker respondents said that they had already deployed wireless VoIP, in some manner, and another 30% said that they were planning or evaluating the implementation of the technology within the next six to twelve months.

Wireless VoIP presents carriers with a lucrative new opportunity if they market the service smartly. "It is important to remember that VoIP is a technology and not a product," says Becky Diercks, In-Stat analyst. "The product is telephone service, and customers don't generally care what the underlying technology is, as long as it works. Carriers should look at wireless VoIP as just one other manner in which to provide seamless access to customers."

The high-tech research firm has also found that:

• The greatest interest by survey respondents was in having the ability to make phone calls from a laptop computer, in allowing employees to make phone calls from a PDA, and in unified messaging, which allows (among other things) users to access e-mail messages from their voice mail boxes.  
  
• The number of cellular/WLAN subscribers will reach over 256 million worldwide by 2009, or roughly 12% of all cellular subscribers. By 2009, the numbers of subscribers using WLAN for voice is expected to exceed those using WLAN for data only.  
  
• Overall, about 60% of decision-maker respondents believed that it would be beneficial to have a solution that integrates the WWAN with the WLAN.

The report, "Demand for Wireless VoIP Applications and Services in the Business Environment" (#IN0501674MBM),provides an overview of the wireless VoIP market, particularly as it relates to the wireless WAN. It discusses interest in various wireless VoIP-enabled applications from the perspective of the business, as well as the end-user, and it provides subscriber forecasts for cellular/WLAN service users. To purchase this report, or formore information, please visit: http://www.in-stat.com/catalog/Wcatalogue.asp?ID=272