Breaking Boundaries

Voice over IP (VoIP) has gained much traction in India. According to the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), by 2010, there will be 20 million
broadband users, which is an indicator that the adoption of VoIP is bound to
increase.

Giving his outlook on the VoIP market, Minhaj Zia, National Sales
Manager-Unified Communications, Cisco India and SAARC said, "The market is
growing at a phenomenal rate globally and the Indian phone market could not be
left far behind. The VoIP market in India is expected to be the second largest
market in the APAC after China."

Market drivers

There are many factors that are driving the uptake of VoIP solutions in
India. They include increase in PC penetration and tele-density, decrease in
cost of communication, the growing consumer adoption of low-cost broadband,
emergence of cost-effective VoIP technology based on technical standards for
interoperability, and the fact that consumers can readily understand the value
position of VoIP. The vendors operating in the VoIP market can be broadly
classified as those targeting the enterprises and those targeting the SMBs.

Speaking about the opportunities in the space, Animesh Sahay, Head-Telecom
Business, India and SAARC, Juniper Networks said, "TDM-based traditional PBX
market has definitely seen a significant slump with the emergence of VoIP. There
is a strong growth in the IP-PBX and pure-play IP telephony and almost all
organizations are moving towards IP-based intelligent communications." Sahay
added that the key verticals that would see traction include the ITeS/BPO
sector, banking and finance, retail, government and manufacturing.

The VoIP market is evolving in India and apart from the growing demand in
enterprise space, small and medium business segments are also adopting VoIP
solutions. Cisco is one of the vendors who sees much opportunity in the home and
SMB space. "VoIP is seeing tremendous innovation and investment interest within
the communications and networking industry," commented Zia.

Challenges

According to Vadiraj Aralappanavar, Head-Mobile Applications, MindTree, "The
key challenge at the moment is that enterprises need to maintain both PSTN and
VoIP infrastructure for India. VoIP within closed user groups is allowed but not
outside. At the moment, companies are living with the challenges and investing
in both. I feel technology is quite well ahead in this space, compared to its
competitors."

Ruth Samson

ruths@cybermedia.co.in