IP Telephony

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is finally taking off among South African businesses, four years after it was made legal for companies to use VoIP outside their networks. This is the key finding of the VoIP in South Africa 2008 study, released earlier this week by World Wide Worx.

 

The study reported that by 2007, half of all corporations were making use of VoIP, and that usage level is expected to rise to 64 percent in 2008. Also most of these companies were using it within the context of least-cost routing (LCR), which enables any phone call made from inside the company to be routed via the most cost-effective route.

 

Among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the study shows that deployment of VoIP is still rather modest, with usage level rising from 9 percent in 2006 to 18 percent in 2007.

 

"In 2008, the expectations of SMEs are for dramatic growth in VoIP adoption, namely another doubling," said Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx. "Experience suggests, however, that such high expectations are rarely met off a high base. A more realistic forecast would be for growth in VoIP adoption among SMEs to match the level of growth seen in 2007, i.e. to reach around the 25-30 percent level in 2008."

 

In its first report on VoIP in South Africa, released in January 2005, World Wide Worx concluded that the technology was already in active use in large organizations, and such use would intensify. It also reported that adoption among consumers and SMEs would remain muted for several years until seamless and bundled solutions, cost-effective broadband, and a clear value proposition were available.

 

World Wide Worx now claims that its earlier predictions were correct. Although many observers expressed disappointment in the take-up of VoIP during 2005 and 2006, during 2007 broadband become more pervasive among existing Internet users, and VoIP began to attract SMBs in significant numbers.

 

World Wide Worx based its study on detailed analysis of business and technology trends that are shaping the evolution of IP, using face-to-face interviews with decision-makers from 100 South African corporations (including more than 10 percent of the companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) and telephone interviews with 800 small and medium enterprises.