A number of key trends are driving growth in the global VoIP services market, according to Future Market Insights (FMI).

According to FMI, VoIP providers are focusing on pushing solutions across corporate and individual consumer sectors, and this is leading to multi-pronged developments, especially in network infrastructure and cloud-based models.

Proprietary and open source platforms are constantly witnessing the addition of newer technologies, hence consumers are demanding innovative solutions to reduce costs for availing communication services, says FMI.

Other factors driving growth are business customers adopting cloud-based VoIP services due to cost efficiency and packaged service offerings, as well as telecommunication players constantly diversifying to offer customers VoIP services.

Technological advancements are also driving the global VoIP services market, with more advanced networks being rolled out and useage of services over these networks increasing.

In 2012, the corporate consumer segment registered 98.9 billion subscribers, accounting for $43.27Bn of the global VoIP services market in terms of revenue.

FMI forecasts that the number if subscribers in the corporate consumer segment will increase to around 204.8 billion by 2020, accounting for $86.20Bn in terms of revenue.

The computer to computer segment of the VoIP services market registered revenue at $20.74Bn with 57.4 Mn subscribers in 2012.

By 2019 however, this segment is expected to account for $24.74Bn with72.2 Mn subscribers.

The phone to phone segment accounted for $15.88Bn with 35.9 Mn subscribers in 2012, and is expected to increase to $44.78Bn with 116.5 Mn subscribers by 2019.

The computer to phone segment accounted for $27.35Bn with 58.3Mn subscribers, and is projected to increase to $56.56Bn with a 128.3 Mn-strong subscriber base by 2019.

The individual consumer segment had a 52.7 Mn-strong subscriber base in 2012, and contributed $20.70Bn in terms of revenue.

Of all, phone-to-phone VoIP services is the fastest growing segment, expected to increase rapidly in terms of subscriber base and revenue between 2014 and 2019.

This robust growth is attributed to service providers transitioning from circuit-switched networks to packet-switched networks. Hence the market has been witnessing a shift from traditional telephony using CDMA or GSM technology, to VoIP services using cellular networks such as 3G and 4G, according to FMI.

Some of the market restraints include low public acceptance of VoIP services in the residential consumer segment.

However, with need to make international or long-distance calls growing constantly due to a moving working force or migrating population, the impact of low public acceptance is expected to decline to low over the forecast period.

In addition, certain regulations or policies implemented by regional governments in emerging economies to protect or safeguard local telecom industry is hampering growth of the global VoIP services market to a large extent.

The impact of this however, is expected to decline from high to medium and then to low by the end of the forecast period, according to FMI.

Presence of multiple players in the market causes price competitiveness, forcing companies to offer bundled services to differentiate their offerings, says FMI.

These companies focus on offering domestic as well as international calling plans with additional services such as emergency number calling, speed dialling, call transfer, call blocking, conference calling and fax support.