SMB VoIP

A few days ago a I wrote about an experience I had while trying to source a SMB VoIP offering for a friend of mine starting up a new company. Well it would seem as though I am not the only one who is having troubles sourcing a solution of small and medium business.

Have the cable companies overlooked a $100 Billion a year market? According to Heavy Reading the MSOs are too slow to take advantage of this grand opportunity and are focused on delivering residential VoIP instead. According to a report published by Yankee Group last year only 5% of SMBs in the US use VoIP as their primary means of communication and in a January report they said the market for business VoIP is expected to grow to more than $3.3 Billion in service revenue by 2010.

It would appear to me that this monster hole could easily be filled by smaller more nimble VoIP service providers focused on an SMB offer. We know that Vonage Canada, Primus and other Broadband Telephony offers won't cut it due mostly to the lack of QOS (Quality of Service) and poor business VoIP services. Shaw, Telus, and Rogers are too busy battling it out on the mobile and residential front and Bell seems to be lost in it's own bureaucracy. So, who is left to take care of the SMBs in Canada's largest cities and rural areas?

VoIP over VPN, QOS enabled Broadband VoIP and Hosted Managed VoIP for business are some of the key components that will make an SMB VoIP offering compelling. According to Yankee Group, the most anticipated growth in revenue will come in the hosted VoIP market, a communications solution appealing to enterprises because it enables migration from legacy systems to a managed IP solution without incurring capital expenditure.

To me the opportunity is obvious, smaller service providers focused on a SMB VoIP in Canada and the US have nothing but green pastures ahead of them, the telcos and cable operators are asleep at the wheel.

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This page contains a single entry by published on February 17, 2006 4:20 PM.

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