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Carriers cite the threat of lost revenues as the No. 1 reason to offer VOIP services to businesses and consumers, Heavy Reading reports NEW YORK, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The world's largest telecom carriers are accelerating their plans to offer Internet-based VOIP services to their customers in large part because they are afraid of losing critical business to competitors, according to a major new report issued today by Heavy Reading (http://www.heavyreading.com/), Light Reading Inc.'s market research division. The Future of VOIP: A Heavy Reading Service Provider Survey presents and analyzes results from an exclusive, worldwide survey of network operators regarding their current and planned deployments of VOIP technologies and services, as well as their attitudes toward VOIP's benefits and drawbacks. The survey was conducted by Heavy Reading in August 2005, providing an up-to-the- minute assessment of carrier VOIP plans. The survey includes responses from more than 175 carrier professionals representing more than 130 network operators worldwide, including AT&T (NYSE:T), BellSouth (NYSE:BLS), BT Group (NYSE:BT) (LONDON: BTA) , SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC), and Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ). "The single biggest reason for deploying VOIP is fear that traffic would otherwise migrate to competitors' networks," notes Graham Finnie, Heavy Reading Senior Analyst and author of the report. "Not surprisingly, this view is especially true among incumbent telcos -- over three-quarters of incumbent respondents saw fear of traffic loss as important or critically important to their VOIP strategy." Other key findings from The Future of VOIP: A Heavy Reading Service Provider Survey include the following: Over the next two years, carriers expect a big surge in the proportion of voice traffic that is VOIP. Half the respondents said more than 50 percent of their voice traffic would be IP by 2007, with relatively little difference expected between VOIP in core networks and in access networks. More than three-quarters of survey respondents said their company had already deployed VOIP in some part of its network, and within 12 months that figure will rise to almost 90 percent. At the same time, over half of respondents said that less than 10 percent of traffic, in both access and core, was VOIP today -- and the proportion of customers with VOIP-enabled terminals or handsets was even lower. Most network operators with softswitches deployed in their network have opted for integrated devices, although the data suggests there will be a slight trend toward distributed softswitches in the next two years. Access media gateways are the most widely deployed VOIP network equipment today, and 84 percent of respondents expect to be using them within two years. However, the highest growth in uptake of VOIP equipment is expected to be in media servers and session border controllers (SBCs) or other policy control equipment. The Future of VOIP: A Heavy Reading Service Provider Survey is published in PDF format and costs $2,950. The price includes an enterprise license covering all of the employees at the purchaser's company. Purchasers of the report also gain access to the full survey results, for targeted analysis in a searchable database. The online database allows for segmentation of results by a range of factors, including service provider type, geographic location, and respondent job title. For more information, or to request a free executive summary, contact: Dave Williams Sales Director, Heavy Reading 858-485-8870 Press/analyst contact: Dennis Mendyk Managing Director, Heavy Reading 201-587-2154 About Heavy Reading Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to service providers, vendors, and investors. Its mandate is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next- generation hardware and software. DATASOURCE: Heavy Reading CONTACT: Dave Williams, Sales Director, +1-858-485-8870, , or press/analyst contact -- Dennis Mendyk, Managing Director, +1-201-587-2154, , both of Heavy Reading Web site: http://www.heavyreading.com/

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