SIP Trunking Adoption to Reach 62% by 2017
A new IHS survey shows 45 percent of respondents use SIP today for a portion of their voice connectivity requirements, rising to 62 percent by 2017 as the use of legacy trunks such as T1s decreases.
IHS interviewed buying-decision makers with detailed knowledge of trunking services at nearly 200 North American businesses with more than 100 employees. Respondents were asked about SIP trunking deployment models, drivers and barriers, capacity, connections, endpoints, IP PBX and UC system manufacturers, SIP trunking service providers and more.
“SIP trunking’s been around for a while, but our survey shows inertia on the part of businesses tied up with existing contracts and services is inhibiting growth,” said Diane Myers, IHS’s research director for VoIP, UC and IMS. “But these are not overwhelming barriers, as the key drivers for businesses moving to SIP trunking include flexibility and easier management.”
The market is “wide open” for SIP trunking providers, and in a crowded market, no single provider dominates, according to the survey. Also, respondents said cost savings is not their chief driver for switching to SIP trunking. Instead, flexibility, easier management and improved reliability top the list.
Among respondents that have deployed SIP trunking, SIP represents only half of voice trunk capacity.. Also, SIP trunking connections are currently dominated by native support on the PBX rather than edge equipment such as enterprise session border controllers (SBCs) or gateways, it said.
