According to Market Intelligence Center (MIC), in the fourth quarter of 2005, the Taiwanese enterprise VoIP (Voice over the Internet Protocol) industry racked up shipment value of US$70.1 million, up 19.7% year-on-year, boosting the whole-year shipment value to US$216.9 million, for annual growth of 18.1%. In the fourth quarter, shipment volume of IP (Internet Protocol) phone hit one million units, up 25.1% year-on-year. For all of 2005, it rose 22.2% to 3.2 million units. Shipment volume of enterprise VoIP gateways reached 139,300 ports in the fourth quarter, up 97.3% year-on-year, boosting the whole-year shipment volume to 452,800 ports, for a growth rate of 130.9%.

In 2005, procurement of VoIP equipment by various nations continued to pick up. In the U.S., for instance, of the total new phone connections in 2005, new VoIP lines surpassed new conventional telephone lines for the first time. Amid the extensive pickup in the network voice market, VoIP equipment vendors saw their sales, including IP PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and IP (Internet Protocol) phone, continue to rise.

Shipment of IP phones by Cisco accumulated to near seven million units in the fourth quarter. In addition, Cisco rolled out various IP PBX products, meeting the different needs of large-, medium- and small-sized enterprises,  which are served via 30,000 channel players worldwide. It has received IP PBX orders from big enterprise clients and carriers in North America.

Avaya endeavored to solicit clients via direct sales, and in the fourth quarter of 2005, it stepped into the European market by taking over Tenovis, the second largest communications equipment vendor in Germany. As of the fourth quarter of 2005, accumulated sales of IP lines by Avaya had exceeded 8 million.

In addition, major voice equipment brand vendors, including Alcatel, Nortel, Siemens, Mitel, and NEC, actively sought cooperation with carriers and internet telephony service providers, and launched dedicated SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) VoIP solutions. Due to warm market reception, brand vendors increased their outsourcing for IP phones, boosting shipment volume of IP phones by Taiwanese makers. Due to high profits and involvement of sophisticated software technology, brand vendors still placed only small amount of orders for limited-port enterprise VoIP gateways with Taiwanese contract makers. Some Taiwanese brand makers, such as Octtel and D-Link, however, continued to make inroads in Latin American and Southeast Asian markets, enabling shipment of Taiwanese enterprise VoIP gateways to grow further.

In the first and second quarter of 2006, shipment volumes of Taiwanese IP phones are expected to hit one million units and 1.2 million units, respectively, up 53.7% and 64% year-on-year. Shipment volumes of VoIP gateways are expected to reach 148,700 and 179,400 ports, respectively, up 78.7% and 84.8% year-on-year.