5/16/2005 -- The North American voice-over-IP (VoIP) marketplace is hot today, and by all indications, should continue to sizzle through 2009.

Actually, sizzle doesn’t quite do it justice. In just four years, says market watcher Infonetics Research, today’s red-hot VoIP marketscape could resemble the skies over Lakehurst, N.J., 68 years ago this month.

North American VoIP revenues topped $1.3 billion last year, says Infonetics. But this sum—while encouraging—is but a taste of what’s to come, according to the researcher. In fact, Infonetics projects that VoIP revenues will grow by 1,431 percent—yes, that’s one thousand, four hundred and thirty-one percent—by 2009, bringing total North American VoIP revenues to $19.9 billion.

“VoIP services are relatively new to the telecommunications scene, so the growth rates will be extremely high as communication networks and services trend towards VoIP," said Kevin Mitchell, directing analyst for Infonetics and author of the report, in a statement. "As carriers migrate their network[s] towards IP over the next five years, more services are inevitably next-generation VoIP services.”

To put it in perspective, says Mitchell, we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg today: “This is a very early look, as VoIP services revenue represents less than 1 percent of total wireline carrier revenue in North America in 2004.”

According to Infonetics, the number of residential and SOHO VoIP subscribers in North America should climb from 1.1 million last year to 20.8 million by 2008. Today, managed IP PBX services—which were quicker to market than hosted offerings—made up slightly more than half of the market last year, with uptake primarily in medium-sized and large organizations.

At the same time, says Infonetics, business-hosted VoIP service revenue will outstrip managed IP PBX services by 2006, driven largely by uptake among SMBs. -Stephen Swoyer