According to a report by the Industry Analysis and Technology Division of Wireline Competition Bureau, business VoIP accounts for just less than 10% of business access lines; this against a rate of 37% for consumers. Although that may be a low overall number, it is expected that enterprises will be using business VoIP at a compound annual growth rate of 15% through 2014, says CTI Technology.
The predictions have been attributed to the fact that many enterprises own an internal IP network that enables packet priority to be managed along with the quality of service of voice traffic. SMEs, however, don’t typically possess the same degree of infrastructure.
SMEs have been slow to use VoIP; this is mainly because of a lack of awareness as to the savings which can be made. Many business owners may have used VoIP at home, meaning the full extent of the potential business benefits isn’t initially uncovered.
David Byrd of Telecom Reseller clearly feels that business owners are unhappy with the quality they are currently getting and are ready to step up. He said:
“There is a misconception that, because of the precipitous increase in mobile device usage, users are comfortable with the sub-par quality of current voice service quality. Largely, that is a function of the false understanding that current quality is what’s available, and a lack of familiarity with what it possible – and already being deployed – with full HD voice.”
He went on to say that anyone with experience of a phone call with HD will have established the difference in quality and that perhaps the substantial difference is even more important than when comparing HD and SD video.
Byrd feels strongly about the benefits that HD business VoIP can provide and predicts that more and more businesses will adopt the technology within the next 12 months.
