This year will see double-digit revenue growth for the unified communications (UC) and global cloud-based telephone market as more small businesses ask providers for additional, cloud-based features in their basic UC packages, according to a new market study.
Research firm IHT Markit expects communications providers to add additional services to their offerings, increasing revenue on a per set basis. IHT Markit senior research director Diane Myers says companies will add additional functionality in order to “maintain price points and create stickiness.”
IHS Markit is forecasting hosted VoIP and UC market revenue to reach $3 billion by 2020, with an anticipated 74 million seats globally.
“Hosted VoIP services have hit their stride owing to broad adoption among small, medium and large enterprises,” Myers says. “In particular, large enterprise activity has escalated over the last several years as more companies in this segment choose providers.”
IHSMarkit also notes that the industry in North America is experiencing some consolidation as market participants look for greater scalability, maximizing infrastructure and cost savings. More than eight deals were concluded in the first half of 2016, signaling a growing trend, according to the study.
