Managed and hosted IP telephony services in the US

US businesses now have a wide range of options when it comes to managed and hosted IP telephony services. Smaller specialist providers and large service providers alike are offering managed and hosted services based on either carrier or enterprise grade platforms, and businesses have a variety of models to choose from.

The entry of larger service providers into the IP centrex space has lent credibility to hosted services and given a boost to the smaller service providers who were the first to enter the market. Those smaller service providers still own the bulk of the lower end of the market, while larger providers have continued to target mostly larger businesses with their managed and hosted offerings.

This report covers three main services which fall under the general heading of managed and hosted IP telephony:

IP centrex – a network-based, carrier-grade, multi-tenant platform of feature servers and softswitches providing a hosted service to enterprise customers
Hosted IP PBX – a hosted service, using one or more enterprise-grade IP PBXs per customer hosted in a carrier’s network or data centre
Managed IP PBX – a managed service using premise-based IP PBXs, with the service provider responsible for some or all management tasks associated with the equipment.


Report Highlights

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Key messages

Introduction

A varied set of portfolios

Variety of management models

IP centrex simple today but likely to evolve
Management on a spectrum for managed IP PBX

Pricing models

Features and packages

Productisation versus customisation

Geographic coverage

Target markets

SMEs and distributed businesses still the ‘sweet spot’ for IP centrex
All sizes, with emphasis on large, for managed services
Migration strategies

Differentiation

Pricing and simplicity for SMEs
Reliability, integration, customisation for larger customers

Unified communications

Future trends

Prospects for managed and hosted services
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Figure 1 Hosted and managed IP telephony services
Figure 2 Managed and hosted IPT portfolios
Figure 3 Management options with managed IP PBX services
Figure 4 Typical charging structures
Figure 5 Application server vendors
Figure 6 Migration strategies
Figure 7 Managed and hosted IPT extension forecasts (000s)
Figure 8 Managed and hosted IPT revenue forecasts ($ million)
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