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Five Predictions for VoIP in 2019 - Ribbon's CTO Kevin Riley Weighs In
During a year which is arguably the 20th anniversary of VoIP technologies going mainstream, Kevin Riley, CTO of Ribbon Communications, a leading provider of secure real-time communications solutions across the globe, gave us his take on the top five dynamics in VoIP.
Voice continues to grow, even as traditional voice architectures fade into the distance, with fixed-line voice connections further declining as the quality and reliability of IP-based voice applications improve.
The number of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) subscribers has been forecast to increase to over $204 billion by 2020, according to a new report by Future Market Insights.
In addition, researchers found that the computer-to-computer, or “softphone” segment of the VoIP services market, registered revenue at just over $20 billion, with 57 million subscribers in 2012. However, this year the segment is expected to account for nearly $25 billion, with over 72 million subscribers.
Here are Kevin Riley’s top five predictions for this growing – and morphing – market in 2019.
- Securing VoIP will be top of mind for service providers, enterprises and business. With the edge of the network converging, and the understanding of voice as a data application, the opportunity for bad actors to infiltrate entire networks by finding their way in through VoIP systems will heighten. The prevailing zero-trust security posture mandates that every application be secured.
- Simplification of feature management will be critical, as the behaviors of users including those who grew up using mobile devices are changing; complexity will diminish as UC applications become increasingly programmable and embedded in applications as natural enhancements to the user experience.
- Cloud communications will grow dramatically, as network infrastructure improves and switching between private, public and multi-clouds becomes easier and the cost benefits associated with virtualization of voice services (compared to expensive and difficult to manage premise-based voice systems) becomes even more attractive.
- Integration of voice into business applications will make it easier for employees to collaborate and get work done, while also making it easier for customers to engage with enterprises, organizations including government agencies, and SMBs on the web, via mobile apps, and through other messaging channels.
- Contact Centers will continue to change dramatically as they realize the cloud can provide reliable service, resiliency and quality, and either change their infrastructure (after writing down technical debt associated with private circuits and on-prem equipment) or risk being challenged by innovators who are taking advantage of cloud-native architectures, lowering the bar to entry, and associating their costs with their actual needs – scaling up and down as necessary.
“Cloud-based, virtualized real time VoIP services have truly matured over the last year,” Riley said. “Solutions are much more scalable, flexible and available on-demand – a message which is getting through to all the players in the VoIP ecosystem. VoIP is not just voice anymore – it is a data service which enables flexible work environments through hot-desks, remote working and CRM integration, as well as extending the service to mobile devices.”
Riley also believes Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) will grow tremendously over the next few years, as more and more developers, including those who work on AWS (which Ribbon last year announced they are working closely with) implement real-time communications into their workflows.
“The new, more open architecture for VoIP and all telecom services is inspiring so much innovation, including AI and NLP applications, which we have been rolling out for the last few years,” Riley said. “The acceleration from successful POCs into production environments in 2018 was astounding and has set into motion enablement of embedded voice services into any and all web and mobile applications. We’ve never been more enthusiastic about the potential of the new voice world than at the beginning of 2019, when virtualized infrastructure, new business models, and especially creative applications development is front-loaded.”
Arti Loftus is an experienced Information Technology specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the research, writing, and editing industry with many published articles under her belt.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
