By Telecom Lead Team:Service
provider voice core equipment spending in 2016 is expected to hit $6.8 billion,
a decline of 10 percent over 2011 revenues.
Over
the next five years, device revenue tied to circuit switching, or to converting
traffic from circuit to VoIP, is expected to decline 8 percent CAGR, while
software-based devices tied to VoIP-Only are expected to grow 19 percent.
The
faster-growing segment includes voice application servers (VAS), session border
controllers (SBC) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) devices, which will benefit
from upgrades related to broadband growth, enterprise use of SIP Trunking and
cloud-based telephony, and wireless network upgrades to VoLTE.
“This
year, we expect to see commercial launches of VoLTE services in North
America. The underlying VoLTE infrastructure is unique from prior
generations of wireless voice core equipment because it is
software-based,” said Chris DePuy, analyst at Dell’Oro Group.
As
the large installed base of wireless users gradually transitions towards VoLTE,
it should cause a shift in wireless voice spending towards VAS, SBC and IMS
systems, a trend already underway in wireline networks.
Recently,
Dell’Oro Group said the service provider core voice equipment spending is
expected to decline at a 2 percent rate through 2015.
While the majority of carrier voice equipment revenues is
expected to decline, the VoIP-only segment, which includes Voice Application
Servers (VAS), Session Border Controllers (SBC) and IP Multimedia Subsystem
(IMS) devices, is projected to grow over 20 percent annually.
Since 2002, spending on legacy equipment that connects
wireline circuit switched networks to new Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP)
networks has totalled to over $20 billion. This large worldwide investment has
resulted in widespread deployment of VoIP networks.
Ericsson leads the wireless voice core market in Q3 2011
Telecom equipment and solutions provider Ericsson
remained number one in wireless voice core business. GENBAND maintained its
revenue share lead in the wireline voice core market.
The overall carrier IP telephony market revenues
experienced a 10 percent annual decline in the third quarter of 2011 as
quarter-over-quarter growth in the Voice Application Server (VAS) segment
failed to offset declines in the Media Gateway, Softswitch and Session Border
Controller (SBC) segments.
