Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) continue to be the VoIP providers of choice for businesses, according to Infonetics Research's annual North America Business VoIP Service Leadership Scorecard.
A key piece of growth in Comcast's VoIP portfolio is its Business VoiceEdge service. In Q1 2013, the cable MSO's business service revenue rose 27.5 percent to $741 million.
Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics, said that the nationwide buildout of its Business VoiceEdge service "helped Comcast grow its installed base and maintain its #1 position in Infonetics' hosted VoIP leadership scorecard for the second year in a row. "
Although Verizon reported that business services dipped declined 2.6 percent, global strategic enterprise services such as cloud, managed services, Ethernet, and VoIP grew 6 percent.
Besides VoIP services, Verizon continued to be the dominant IP connectivity provider "followed closely by XO."
In addition to Verizon and Comcast, 8x8 (Nasdaq: EGHT) continues to find its place in the VoIP services market. Myers said that 8x8 made "a big leap this year thanks to improved financial stability, continued growth of its installed base and a focus on service enhancements."
A number of challenges remain for VoIP providers. As more businesses adopt SIP trunking, service providers will have to deal with the challenge of IP connectivity becoming a commodity market. Businesses that are considering a move to VoIP services now have a wide range of service providers from which to get their VoIP services, including traditional telcos, cable MSOs, VARs/agents, PBX/UC vendors, and pure play hosted providers.
Myers said that in order to be successful, "providers need financial stability, highly automated processes and broad geographic reach to gain volume."
For more:
- see the release
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