Worldwide Softswitch and Media Gateway 2005-2009 Forecast: What's Next for the VoIP Equipment Market?

This IDC study examines the emerging market for softswitches and media gateways, discusses recent market trends, identifies future growth opportunities and constraints, and provides a five-year revenue forecast. Softswitches and media gateways remain the focal point for next-generation switching. But the definitions and boundaries of this class of network equipment to some extent remain in a state of flux as the roles of other critical network elements such as session border controllers and application servers become revised under new architectures such as IMS.

From a service provider perspective, the telecom downturn and the ripple effects of its protracted aftermath have effectively scaled back many strategic carrier plans for wide-scale infrastructure conversion. But deployments are continuing on a global basis with a revised set of goals, objectives, and drivers.

"Softswitch and media gateway sales are projected to grow from $1.35 billion in 2004 to $9.27 billion in 2009, effectively surpassing total revenue for legacy switches in that year," noted Tom Valovic, IDC's program director for VoIP Infrastructure.