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- Data and telecommunications is seemingly a match made in heaven. Running different sets of cables to each desk, maintaining multiple types of networking hardware for each technology, and for most environments the need for multiple support staff is just not cost effective when data and voice can share the same line. Enter VoIP, a technology that encompasses telephone features as well as productivity-enhancing applications that co-exist on your existing data network. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is one benefit of the convergence between data and telecommunications. Companies today are seeing the value of transporting voice over IP networks to reduce telephone and facsimile costs. VoIP technology also sets the stage for advanced multimedia applications and services such as unified messaging, in which voice, fax, and e-mail are all combined. For many enterprises VoIP presents the best opportunity to get more from their existing infrastructures.
- Even in this era of corporate cutbacks, VoIP is emerging as a growth industry due to its immediate cost savings. For instance, the rapidly lowering hardware costs to implement a VoIP solution has helped spur greater interest in the technology. According to a recent ZDNet article, Teney Takahashi, an analyst for the Radicati Group said, "over the next four years, leading vendors, including Avaya, Alcatel, Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems and Siemens, are likely to lower their own manufacturing costs, as they become more adept at making equipment designed for Net telephony (VoIP)". Frost & Sullivan, a market consulting firm, reports that companies selling VoIP equipment generated more than $1 billion in revenues as far back as the year 2000 and predicts VoIP revenues rising to $20 billion by 2007.
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