IP telephony deployed by 2007

Medium and large companies plan to deploy IP Telephony within three years, according to a recent survey.

The IDC profiled the current and future IP Telephony acquisitions and satisfaction levels of over 300 Australian organisations. The findings indicated increasing investments in IP services, with 61 percent of the companies intending to activate IP Telephony by 2007. This will represent almost a $1 billion market of enterprise IP Telephony equipment and VoIP services.

A lack of understanding of IP Telephony was the main reason why the remaining companies did not plan to deploy it, the survey found.

Cisco and Telstra have the biggest mindshare when it comes to equipment vendors and solutions providers, the IDC study revealed, with 86 percent and 38 percent respectively.

"Cisco is bearing the fruits of its early entry in the market and are very well positioned to continue to lead in this market," said Landry Fevre, IDC research director of telecommunications.

"[Cisco is] very likely to be on most enterprise IP Telephony shopping lists and remain until the final stage of bids before a decision is made on which to select.

"Overlap and friction between carriers, equipment vendors and system integrators are likely to occur around VoIP as competition intensifies with more players and products entering the market this year," added Fevre.