BOONTON, N.J. -- Despite the growing popularity of voice-over the Internet (VoIP) calling, VoIP phones in the enterprise will not represent the majority of installed PBX base until 2009, says a new report from Insight Research. PBXs are the phone systems used by large companies to route calls to individual offices, and though shipments between 2004 until 2009 of the newer VoIP PBX phones are expected to grow at a compounded rate of more than 20 percent over the forecast period while the older TDM-based phone technology decline at roughly the same rate, the older TDM phone technology will continue to dominate the installed base until the end of the decade, says a new report from Insight Research.

According to the Insight study, IP PBX and IP Centrex: Growth of VoIP in the Enterprise 2004-2009, the PBX business will ship about $4.3 billion worth of PBX equipment this year.

Insight's study also found that in 2003, the voice equipment market reached a much-anticipated inflection point, with traditional PBX vendors like Nortel Networks and Avaya finally grabbing back the momentum and shipping more of the newer IP PBX phones than rivals Cisco and 3Com.

According to Bob Rosenberg, President of Insight Research, “By 2009, the installed base of IP equipment will dominate the enterprise landscape, but that's still a few years away. The cost of going VoIP is certainly a factor here, since the price of newer IP phones will continue to be about 25 percent higher than the TDM alternative, even as volume shipment of VoIP phones takes off. VoIP never was and never will be the least expensive way to deliver voice to the enterprise-but the allure of VoIP's rich applications (like video telephony) will slowly convert enterprise legacy customers,” Rosenberg concludes.

Insight Research Corp.