IDC expects the entry of more VoIP service offerings to drive the market’s growth in the Philippines over the next five years

January 27, 2005

Manila, January 27, 2005 – A recent study published by IDC explores the competitive environment in the Philippine Voice over IP (VoIP) services market, in light of the current and possible future regulatory scenarios in the Philippines.

The VoIP market in the Philippines is still at an infancy stage and is still very much a gray market, where no regulations specifically address such technology. At present, prevailing ruling of NTC on the commercial offering of VoIP hails from its recognition of VoIP as a voice service, on the premise that it is a regular voice service using a different or nontraditional protocol. Thus, it has opened the market for various interpretations as far as regulation is concerned. However, significant developments in the Philippines VoIP competitive scene came about in 2003 and 2004, with various companies detailing plans for venturing into VoIP, and some actually commencing offering the service.

During the first half of 2004, VoIP services registered a growth of 18% from the second half of 2003. IDC expects the entry of more VoIP service offerings to drive the market to growing by 56% in 2004 from 2003.

The aggressive push will mainly come from VAS providers and pure-play VoIP service providers who are expected to enter or intensify their business in the Philippine market. The telecommunication carriers are likewise anticipated to come up with more concrete VoIP service offerings, albeit at a more strategic pace. Meanwhile, most service providers will use cheap long distance calls as the main value proposition of VoIP for both the consumer and the enterprise market initially.

In the longer-term period, IDC believes that the strategic advantages of VoIP will be derived from applications that VoIP can deliver to clients, at least for the enterprises. As such, telecommunication carriers with more thought-through VoIP strategies and ability to value add their VoIP offerings with applications are most likely to sustain their VoIP businesses.

“At the end of the day, both service providers will have to walk a fine line between optimizing their existing infrastructure and resources, and ensuring that they are not left behind in riding the wave of next generation technologies”, says Karen V. Rondon, Senior Analyst, IDC Philippines.

For more information about purchasing the research, please contact Hazmi at +603-2169-7526 or hyusof@idc.com. For press enquiries, please contact Stephen Chong at +603-2169-7521 or ckchong@idc.com.

Contact

Hazmi Yusof
Senior Account Manager
Tel: 603-2169-7526
Email: hyusof@idc.com

Chong Chee Kian
Events & Marketing Executive
Tel: +603-2169-7521
Fax : +603-2163-5098
Email:ckchong@idc.com