13 Most Important VoIP Statistics for 2023

VoIP, or “Voice over Internet Protocol,” lets a business place or call center make and receive phone calls over the internet rather than a traditional phone line.

As a result, VoIP is a far more powerful way to communicate. Users can place calls from dedicated handsets, desktops, laptops, or even from a mobile app.

Calls aren’t dependent on a physical location, making VoIP a great option for a distributed and remote workforce. That’s a good fit for current business trends, as an increasing number of companies are encouraging their employees to give up the usual 40-hour work week and stay involved in all the operations while working remotely.

Since a VoIP system can be entirely software, it’s often more cost-effective when compared to the costs of physical hardware and on-premise installation. This is why VoIP usage is on the way up, rather than the way down. For the vast majority of businesses, having a reliable phone system that can be used as a primary means of communication is simply a necessity – if it’s affordable, that’s even more appealing.

The first modern VoIP solution hit the market in 1995, but VoIP has been improving in leaps and bounds ever since. Here, we’ve listed the most essential statistics and facts to know about the industry-wide impact of business VoIP.

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VoIP Usage Statistics

1) US VoIP business lines jumped from 6.2 million to 41.6 million between 2010 and 2018

Businesses in the United States added over 35 million VoIP lines in the eight years between 2010 and 2018, reaching a total of 41.6 million, according to Statista.

By contrast, residential VoIP lines increased from about 28 million to 76.6 million during the same period. Businesses saw a much larger surge in VoIP percentage-wise, even while remaining below residential numbers.

It’s a sign that businesses shifting towards VoIP can happen rapidly across industries.

2) More and more small and midsize businesses are adapting VoIP

The biggest adoption of VoIP services was during the period of 2008 to 2012, but growth remains steady to this day, and small to mid-size businesses (SMBs) in particular will find the technology attractive across the near future: SMBs will likely grow more than 15% in the VoIP market by 2025.

This growth will be driven by two factors: Smaller budgets and increasing remote work trends. From 2019 to 2021, the number of employees working remotely in the US tripled, from 5.7% to 17.9%, and now it’s thought that around 58% of Americans are working from home at least one day a week. Aside from curbing costs, mobile workers also save a lot of time when working through a VoIP system: 67% of them report increased productivity and increased ability to resolve problems faster. On top of all that, remote workers tend to be happier as well.

3) 50% of a voice conversation is silent, allowing VoIP to save data

Traditional phone lines are constantly sending data both ways… even when one side is silent and listening to the other person speak. On average, when one person is speaking, the other one is not, meaning that a full 50% of an audio conversation is totally silent. Traditional phone lines are sending twice as much data for essentially no benefit.

VoIP technology takes advantage of this, however, using “silence suppression.” VoIP can detect when someone is speaking, and can send data when needed, but won’t send any data if it simply detects background noise without speech.

4) VoIP grew more than 200% since the start of the pandemic

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic drove a massive shift towards remote white-collar work rather than in-office operation. Naturally, forms of remote communication including VoIP and video conferencing software grew in leaps and bounds in order to handle the sudden influx.

Since 2020, VoIP and video conferencing have grown by almost 212%. And while some companies have since began calling for a return to the physical office, VoIP has permanently gained greater acceptance and usage within the business world.

5) 46% of illegal calls rely on VoIP technology

That’s right, the rise of VoIP had one big negative impact: Scammers and phishers realized how useful it was right alongside honest businesses. According to MyBroadband, right around 46 percent of all illegally made phone calls use VoIP technologies. The numbers of VoIP scams are unlikely to drop anytime soon.

VoIP Cost and Savings Statistics

6) Average VoIP costs are around $20 to $30 per user per month

So how much will VoIP cost you? It can be tough to know for sure, thanks to factors like which features you’ll need and which vendor is best for you. Based on the typical price ranges for the top six cloud-based phone systems, we estimate it’ll cost between $20 and $30 per user, per month.

Granted, this is just a rough estimation: Stripped-down services may be cheaper, while feature-rich ones may cost more. 8×8 and RingCentral are popular options, with RingCentral’s services costing between $20 and $45 per user per month, but Nextiva comes with a wider range of between $17.95 and $52.95.

However, this is a small price to pay for a truly transformative software program. One recent estimation suggested that businesses can save up to 75% on communication if they opt for VoIP, and with the economy showing little signs of improving, those kinds of savings will really make the difference. 

7) A business’s average VoIP savings are between 30% and 50%

The average savings businesses should expect after adopting a VoIP system can range a lot, depending on factors including the business size and what system they were using before. Ballpark estimates put the savings at between 30% and 50%.

The biggest savings will be seen by companies getting rid of their on-premise phone system in favor of a cloud-based one, according to one report. Gartner estimates that by 2025, 85% of organizations will embrace a cloud-first principle, and “will not be able to fully execute on their digital strategies without the use of cloud-native architectures and technologies.”

8) VoIP costs will decline as much as 5% annually

VoIP is already cheap, but it’ll get cheaper in the future, thanks to new advancements and consolidation. According to estimates from Gartner, prices for cloud telephony (VoIP, in other words) can be expected to decline by between 3% and 5% annually.

That’s just a projection, mind you, but VoIP prices really did decline by between 2% and 3% annually in both 2017 and 2018, the same report found, so this doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.

9) VoIP saves businesses an average of 32 call minutes daily

Adopt a VoIP system, and your business can save 32 minutes of calls per day per team member, one report found, largely due to better availability, more flexibility and features that cut out rote tasks.

All businesses will save money as they switch to VoIP, though smaller businesses tend to enjoy more savings. A case study featured in PC World found that when businesses with 30 phones switched to VoIP, they were able to save a monthly $1,200.

Company-wide shifts to remote work, powered by VoIP, lead to even more saving overall: Dell was able to save $39.5 million by relying on telecommuting while cutting down on carbon pollution to boot.

VoIP Market Share

10) North America is projected to dominate the VoIP industry with a 40% market share

The North America VoIP market specifically is projected to do the best, according to a 2019 Global Market Insights, Inc. report. The continent might even nab a 40% share of the global VoIP market by 2025, their projections indicate.

The value of the US VoIP market in 2023 is already $13.7 billion – and considering it’s growing so rapidly, it won’t be at all surprising if it doubles, or even triples in value over the next few years.

What’s behind North American growth? The report pulls out three factors: The popularity of cloud services in general, advances in telecommunications infrastructure serving as the rising tide that lifts all ships, and the rise of remote working.

11) About 31 percent of all businesses use VoIP systems

Nearly a full third of businesses currently use VoIP systems: 31%, to be specific.

It’s a large enough number that it’s clear VoIP is a major player in business communications, but a small enough one that VoIP still has plenty of room to grow.

12) Global VoIP market share may hit $55 billion by 2025

A 2019 Global Market Insights, Inc. report holds that the VoIP market will grow to around $55 billion by 2025.

That’s a big jump, but Global Market Insights argues that “extensive internet penetration” will drive the industry towards a tipping point and triggering an even more widespread adaptation of VoIP than we currently have.

There’s a reason VoIP continues to grow: It’s a cheap but effective way to help a business communicate both internally and externally. Getting started is as easy as filling out the Tech.co form to start collecting custom quotes.

VoIP AI Statistics

13) AI Will Help Voice Recognition Software Market Grow to Over $50 billion

Artificial intelligence can streamline any business software, and VoIP is no exception. Potential uses of AI within a VoIP system include: Boosting security by analyzing threats, powering chatbots to help customers, predicting maintenance needs, and personalizing messages.

Perhaps the biggest growth area for AI in VoIP is voice recognition software, which can be used in virtual assistants built into a VoIP system to handle minor daily tasks. The voice recognition software market is set to grow nearly 20% year over year to reach $50.16 billion by 2030. However it impacts sales businesses, AI is set to dominate the industry: Servion Global Solutions has predicted as much as 95% of customer interactions will be powered by AI in some form by 2025.

Adapting more AI wouldn’t be a huge change from how VoIP operates today. After all, one common VoIP feature is already powered by a fairly simple AI: Automatic call routing is what a VoIP telephone system uses to distribute incoming calls to an employee who’s available to answer them.

Overall, the global AI market is expected to grow in size to reach about $1.81 trillion by 2030, Grand View Research has found.

Verdict: Are VoIP Stats Compelling Enough to Invest?

Top stats to know include VoIP’s 212% growth since 2020, the 67% of mobile workers who say VoIP boosted their productivity, and the estimated 75% of a communication budget that businesses can save by picking VoIP.

But the shortest summary of all these VoIP statistics? VoIP will save you money, they deliver crystal-clear audio anywhere in the world, and everyone has gotten used to them following their rapid growth in recent years.

If you’re considering trying out a new VoIP system for your business (and you should!), you can make sure you get the best deal by comparing accurate tailored price quotes from multiple companies matched to your needs. Take just a minute to fill out Tech.co’s VoIP quotes form and you can start gathering quotes today!

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