VoIP market is expanding very rapidly. The perception that it is going to take over the telecom industry is wide spread. Every Carrier and Telco is banking on new VoIP services to grow its business.

Most carriers and Telecos now offer Residential VoIP Phone Services. New Cable based VoIP services are rapidly being introduced. AT&T Corp. says (July 2004) that it expects to have 1 million voice over Internet customers by the end of next year, Verizon Communications recently unveiled plans to offer it in 139 markets and cable TV giant Comcast Corp. has said it anticipates offering the service to all its customers by the end of 2006. A flurry of recent announcements by telecom companies paint the hot technology as the industry future.

All Telecom equipment vendors have introduced and continue to expand their VoIP offerings. Industries and Enterprises are rapidly adopting VoIP for their business.

It is estimated that 10 percent of global calls are currently made through VoIP. Allied Business Intelligence, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., predicts that advanced VoIP service revenues worldwide will increase from less than $1 billion last year to more than $30 billion by 2008, as businesses seek advice in adopting VoIP. Most of that growth will take place between 2006 and 2008, the firm says. Research firm IDC forecasts that worldwide sales of IP telephony equipment will increase by 48 percent in 2004 and top $4.9 billion by the end of the year, ballooning to $15.1 billion by 2007.

So should consumers ditch their traditional land lines now and opt for the cheaper new service? Will VoIP be the death of TDM-based PBX? Since all the investments are going into the new technology, it is the long term logical conclusion. However, it will take years to replace the existing infrastructure. What the industry is going to face is a period where we have a hybrid environment. The hybrid period may last as much as seven to ten years. The main point for businesses is that - given the right situation - VoIP can dramatically alter operations and even business models, allowing large and mid-size businesses to lower costs and, more importantly, giving smaller businesses the critical competitive edge they need to play ball with the big boys. Therefore the question for businesses is when and not if to migrate to VoIP.