According to an item from In-Stat:

"The international telecommunications industry is in the early stages of a migration to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), reports In-Stat. The big question is when will a mass migration to VoIP occur? 2005-2009 is the consumer and small business VoIP ramp-up period, and migration to VoIP will peak in the 2010-2014 time frame, the high tech market research firm says. This time frame is largely dependent on carriers' strategies for migration to the Next-Generation Network (NGN)."

I generally tend to agree that increasing amounts of residential users, small businesses, and large enterprises will become consumers of VoIP services. Noone really knows how long this will take, but I find no fault with In-Stat's assertion that we'll see a ramp-up to 2009, and even higher numbers in 2010-2014. My only beef is the assertion that VoIP will "peak."

Let me ask you, when do you think telephony will peak? When will calling your Mom on Mother's day "peak"? VoIP is not some new "thing" that will go away when people get tired of playing with it. VoIP is an enabling technology that enables "talking" over long distances. The fact that it does so much more is not the relevant point here.

2014 means nothing. When we hit global teledensity (or some mid 21st century version thereof) of 30-40-50 % then we can talk about peaking.

Still, I like the fact that In-Stat projects big things for VoIP. Who can argue with that?