The struggling economy will slow the growth of Voice over IP (VoIP), but deployments remain wide-ranging at mitigated levels, reports In-Stat.

Telephony players continue to post encouraging growth numbers despite the economic environment. The VoIP segment in particular seems primed for ongoing growth, in spite of otherwise unfavorable economic conditions.

Not everyone is upbeat about the prospects for VoIP. Market watcher In-Stat, recently projected that the ongoing economic crisis will slow VoIP growth. “IP continues to be a partial voice solution for most businesses with VoIP, particularly among larger businesses,” said David Lemelin, In-Stat analyst, in a release. “Therefore, there is significant room from growth even among businesses that have already adopted it.”

In-Stat said, just over a third of businesses in the U.S. use VoIP exclusively; a far larger number use it inconjunction with traditional telephone service. Approximately 32% of larger companies say the economic crisis has caused them to scale back VoIP deployment plans.

On the whole, enterprise customers are more likely to go the partial VoIP route — with mixed VoIP and conventional telephony solutions — with SOHO shops more likely to go IP-only.

Read the Full In-Stat Article

Ironically, the VoIP industry may actually benefit from the economic slow down. The increase in companies adopting VoIP technologies is expected to be greater than the loss of customers affected by general economic conditions. Approximately 4% to 12% of small businesses have already migrated to VoIP, this leaves at least 88% of small businesses that at some point will migrate to VoIP.

Another factor that should lead to greater VoIP adoption is that eventually, all of the currently installed telecommunications equipment will eventually need to be replaced.

The Economic Meltdown Will Have a Positive Impact on VoIP Growth

As a result of the economic slowdown and stock market crash, all executives are under increasing pressure to reduce costs. While there are a lot of areas where expenses can be cut, the phone bill is a monthly reminder to executives to look at VoIP. In addition, moving to VoIP allows companies to realize efficiencies enabled by Voice over IP. That is an added benefit. In fact, the benefit from the gain in efficiency should be greater than the savings from moving to a VoIP telephone system.

Finally, in my humble opinion, we are a lot closer to the end of the current recession. As the economy begins to improve and credit begins to flow more easily, the VoIP market will further benefit.

The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong.

The article, aptly termed The End by Michael Lewis, author of Liars Poker is the best description of what lead up to the economic crisis we are currently facing. Having spent time on Wall St when this book was written and in the mortgage industry, in Orange County, CA (Ground Zero for the crisis), this article clearly explains how and why the mortgage debacle lead to a global economic crisis and almost wiped out the US banking sector.

What has happened will almost certainly lead to a complete legislative overhaul of the US Financial system. OpenCongress.org is great site to follow what is happening in Washington.