Core Voice Gear Spending Out, Enterprise Voice/VoLTE In

Service-provider voice core equipment spending in 2016 is expected to hit $6.8 billion, a decline of 10 percent compared to 2011 revenues, predicts Dell’Oro Group. During the next five years, device revenue tied to circuit switching or to converting traffic from circuit to VoIP is expected to decline 8 percent CAGR, while software-based devices tied to VoIP-only could grow 19 percent.

The faster-growing segment includes voice application servers (VAS), session border controllers (SBC) and IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) devices, which will benefit from upgrades related to broadband growth, enterprise use of SIP trunking and cloud-based telephony, and wireless network upgrades to Voice over LTE (VoLTE).

"This year, we expect to see commercial launches of VoLTE services in North America. The underlying VoLTE infrastructure is unique from prior generations of wireless voice core equipment because it is software-based,” comment Dell’Oro Analyst Chris DePuy. “As the large installed base of wireless users gradually transitions towards VoLTE, it should cause a shift in wireless voice spending towards VAS, SBC and IMS systems – a trend already underway in wireline networks.”