According to Infonetics research, the total size of VPN market worldwide in 2001 was $ 1.3 billion. They project that VPN hardware revenue will reach $2.9 billion in 2002 and $3.6 billion in 2003. (Encore Networks, 9/2002.)

More than 40% of people in the U.S. workforce are taking fewer trips. More than 70% are interested in alternatives to travel. 63 percent rate access to collaboration technology as very important, as opposed to 44 percent prior to Sept. 11. Post Sept. 11 in-person meetings decreased 16.3%, to account for 45.4% of meetings. Before 9/11 in-person meetings accounted for 54.2% of meetings. Web conferencing usage increased 61.5%. Video conferencing usage grew 24.5%. Voice conferencing usage grew 11.7%. The number of respondents that believed access to voice, web, and video conferencing was very important to them personally increased from 44.3% before Sept. 11 to 63.9% after Sept. 11. Most respondents believed that conferencing technologies would allow them to get more work done (78%), make faster decisions (66%), and be more competitive (64%). (Wainhouse Research, 9/2002.)

IP Centrex market is expected to grow from 13,000 lines in 2001 to 10 million lines by 2008. Traditional Centrex markets, which represented 16.5 million lines in 2001, are likely to decline to approximately 10.9 million lines by 2008. Most IP Centrex deployments at present are with small businesses that have less than 100 lines. The study also says that IP Centrex might increase the penetration of network-based business voice services from 15.4% in 2001 to 17.4% in 2008. (Frost & Sullivan, 8/2002.)

Wireline service provider capital expenditure in North America will decline from $77 billion in 2001 to $46-51 billion in 2002.(RHK, 4/2002.)

Unified messaging markets will surge in 2004 and 2005 as Voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) replacements of legacy PBX systems accelerate. Spending on unified messaging systems will rise to $3.5 billion in 2005 from $1.2 billion in 2001, growing at a 32.1% compound annual growth rate. Unified messaging was the fastest growing segment of the voice processing market with a 12.6% increase in 2001 over 2000. (TIA, 8/2002.)

According to the Yankee Group, the North American switched access market will continue to see a decline in revenues and access lines over the next five years as a result of cannibalization of wireline voice services by technologies such as wireless and the Internet. Growing broadband availability and adoption will have a negative impact on local dialtone revenues as end users drop second lines for high-speed access. The Yankee Group projects that the North American switched access market will decline from $146.9 billion at the end of 2001 to $116.2 billion in 2006. (Yankee Group, 5/8/2002)

The IP PBX market is expected to grow to $3.9 billion in revenue by 2005, representing nearly 20% of all traditional PBX sales. (Synergy Research, 2/2002)

The global market for Signaling System 7 (SS7) network elements leveled off at $9.4 billion in 2000. Shipments of SS7 network elements are expected to increase by just over 4% annually to reach approximately $11.5 billion by 2005. (Venture Development Corp., "The Global Market for Signaling Products and Related Equipment in PSTN and Voice over Packet Networks; Volume I: SS7", 12/21/2001.)

By the end of 2001, there were expected to be 11.5 million users in North America connected to the Internet via Cable or DSL, many of them corporate users. Cahners In-Stat Group, 11/2001.)

Wireless and mobile transactions will account for nearly 20% of business-to-business transaction volume and 25% of business-to-consumer traffic by 2003. The report is based on a 2001 survey of 351 professionals from various organizations in North America, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA), and Asia Pacific. (Meta Group, 9/2001.)

86% of professionals surveyed in the fields of mobile computing, wireless electronic devices and battery technology felt that wireless would overtake and oversell landline service within the decade: 19% said the change would occur within 3 years, 38% said within 5 years and 29% within 10 years. Almost two-thirds of respondents prefer using several specialized devices (phone, pager, PDA, etc.) to using one integrated solution. (Arthur D. Little, 10/2001.)

Enterprises will migrate their voice from traditional networks to data networks at a rate that will create a $16.5 billion dollar IP-PBX market worldwide by 2006. (Allied Business Intelligence.)

An international boom in internet use and the increasing popularity of cell phones in countries without a wireline infrastructure is expected to greatly increase demand for wireless wide area network (WAN) equipment. This segment of the industry generated revenues of $4.59 billion in 2000; it is projected to increase to $15.62 billion by 2007. (Frost & Sullivan, 7/2001.)

Despite the millions of miles of installed fiber in the USA, 97% of people who work in large commercial buildings in the US have no direct fiber access. (Pinnacle Communications, 7/2001.)

The market for enterprise broadband access and VSAT networking is forecast to grow from $272 million in 2001 to $7.1 billion in 2006. Significant growth is also slated for the enterprise IP multicasting and content distribution market. This market is forecast to grow from $150 million in 2001 to $2.1 billion in 2006. (Northern Sky Research, 7/2001.)

As a result of the demand for faster and higher-bandwidth Internet access, the total market for fiber optic test equipment is projected to top $6 billion by 2007. (Frost & Sullivan, 7/2001.)

According to research, pricing, ease of use, administration and applications will drive the adoption of LAN telephony. A study concludes that the rise of LAN telephony will lead to the slow cannibalization of the PBX market. In-Stat predicts revenues of over three billion dollars in LAN telephony handset, server, and application sales by 2005. The top 6 market leaders garnered 94% of the US station market. (Cahners In-Stat, 7/2001.)

Research suggests that the worldwide market for telephony speech processing software might grow to over $3.5 billion by 2005. This represents a 2001-2005 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52.1%. Automatic speech recognition (ASR), one of three core speech technologies, will account for 96.2% of the total 2005 revenue. The conversion of text into speech (TTS), another speech technology, will account for 3.1% of total revenue in 2005, while voice recognition (VR) will account for only 0.7%. (IDC, "Worldwide Telephony Speech Processing Software Market Forecast and Analysis, 2001-2005," 12/2001.)

Circuit switched technology still makes up over 90% of investment dollars being spent on telecommunications networks. (Venture Development Corp., 9/2001.)

In 2005, sales of speech recognition software engines, the basis for all speech recognition products, will reach $2.7 billion. (Cahners In-Stat, 7/2001.)