TMCnews Featured Article

A new study from International Data Corporation (IDC (News - Alert)) explored trends and forecasts for voice connections via customer-premises equipment (CPE). According to the study, CPE-based voice connections will continue to be the most predominant business connection type in Western Europe, and by 2015, they will represent 73 percent of the total voice connections in Western Europe.

CPE is telephone or other service provider equipment that is located on the customer’s premises rather than on the provider’s premises or in between. Examples of CPE include telephone handsets, cable TV set-top boxes, and Digital Subscriber Line routers.

The study revealed the fastest growing host-based voice connection type will continue to be multitenant IP Centrex connections. By 2015, it’s predicted that multitenant IP Centrex connections will represent about 63 percent of the total host-based business voice connections.

The Western European countries from a high base number of all business voice connections anticipated to have the strongest growth in CAGR are; Denmark at 2.5 percent, Norway at 2.3 percent, Austria at 2.2 percent and The Netherlands at 1.9 percent.

"The anticipated double-dip recession and the rising uncertainty over the future of the eurozone have been the primary factors for businesses in the region to change their buying behaviors or to reduce the number of business voice connections installed to date," said Isabel Montero, senior research analyst, unified communications and collaboration, IDC EMEA. "And although we are seeing a decline in traditional voice services in favor of the transition towards a hosted or fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) type service, it will be a long time before these services predominate CPE-based voice connections."

The study also found that in 2011, the number of VoBB connections totaled 8,165,960, and by 2015 this business voice connection type is expected to represent about 70 percent of the total public network-based voice connections.

REVE Systems, a B2B global provider of VoIP products and solutions, offers Top-Up, an IP softswitch solution that simplifies international communications. The Top-Up solution brings the power of mCommerce to IP networks the IP softswitch. As a result, users can recharge any mobile phone in use from any location relying on the same PIN on the iTel Switch Plus platform. Service provider customers will also be able to leverage this capability, gifting it to anyone, anywhere in the world.