Report: VoIP Equipment Market Declines 13 Percent Year-over-Year

Report: VoIP Equipment Market Declines 13 Percent Year-over-Year

By Michael Dinan

The worldwide carrier-grade VoIP equipment market declined 13 percent year-over-year in the last quarter, according to a Bethesda, Maryland-based telecommunications research firm.

Officials at Dittberner Associates Inc. say that China-based Huawei led in gateway and softswitch ports shipped and – for the first time – ranked first in terms of revenues.

“The abrupt quarterly decline in the overall market is mainly attributed to slowing investments by carriers in the media gateway and softswitch equipment due to present uncertain economic situation as well as lack of project financing availability,” Dittberner officials say.

The news about VoIP equipment sales comes as a San Mateo, California-based provider of IP communications test and measurement products today says that this slower economy gives VoIP providers a rare chance to showcase their wares.

As TMCnet reported, officials at Keynote Systems say VoIP services with the best end-user experience will be positioned to take advantage of current financial pressures.

Ken Harker, a senior consultant at Keynote, said the company has been conducting VoIP studies for more than three years and has seen significant trends develop, such as serious disparity in reliability and audio performance between VoIP services on managed networks and those that rely on existing broadband home network connections.

“While conditions are dramatically improved for Comcast Digital Voice and Verizon VoiceWing customers, the best that other consumers can hope for is merely tolerable audio quality,” Harker said.

Here’s how officials at Dittberner ranked the top three suppliers in the overall media gateway and softswitch segments in terms of ports shipped and revenue during the quarter:

According to the firm, China-based ZTE followed Huawei in terms of ports shipped, followed by GENBAND, which is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

“Huawei was able to maintain the top position in terms of VoP ports shipped due to ongoing projects with Embratel in Brazil, Motiv in CIS, China Netcom in AP and STC in MENA regions.” Dittberner officials say.