The 21st century heralded an era of unprecedented growth and profitability for service providers (SPs) as they controlled both the network and the services (voice and messaging) consumed by their customers. Today, however, the market has been experiencing a fundamental shift. Growth in voice and messaging has become flat while there has been a tremendous growth in “data” traffic. Ironically, even as this traffic load is being borne by SPs, revenues are being siphoned off by Over The Top (OTT) application providers like Skype, Google and others. Additionally, SPs are facing new competition from technology companies who have traditionally played a partner role. A prime example is Microsoft, who has quietly become a significant provider of enterprise voice lines. Microsoft is aggressively targeting the same enterprise market revenue sources that service providers have been relying on for decades.
