The cloud IP telephony and unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) services market exhibited double-digit growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (CALA) in 2018. Competition is expected to increase in most countries in Latin America due to new service providers entering the market, existing participants widening their service portfolio, and platform providers broadening the availability of cloud-based solutions in the marketplace.

Frost & Sullivan expects this market to exhibit sustained growth in the forecast period, as SPs and VARs develop new offerings in most countries in the region, and as some important projects are finally deployed in the region. Moreover, increasing awareness—among CALA enterprises—of the benefits of unified communications and collaboration, and cloud-based systems will also drive growth in this market.

Growth is expected in several market segments, including banks, insurance and financial services; retail and consumer goods; professional services firms; industry; government; healthcare; education; travel and hospitality; and other smaller industry verticals.

Service providers in CALA are looking to evolve the user consumption from basic telephony to more advanced UC&C functionalities, such as Web and video conferencing, persistent chat rooms, enterprise-grade mobility and the use of multiple devices, and integration with external applications and devices.

This market is challenged by the following factors:
·     Rapid consolidation of UC vendors is creating confusion and hesitation in the market. Customers with a previously defined UC strategy are waiting to ensure their chosen products survive this period of rapid mergers and acquisitions.
·     Lack of competition among telcos is slowing product development and the launch of new offerings among SPs, compared to advanced and more competitive markets, such as the United States and Europe.     
·     Increased competition in the marketplace is set to push prices down, and further erode the ARPU, reducing the revenue growth rates.     
·     Dated telecom infrastructure and regulatory restrictions restrain the advance of cloud communications in many countries in CALA.     
·     Many large enterprises still opt for premise-based deployments due to control, security, and integration concerns.     

Major growth opportunities in this market include, but are not limited to:
·     Hybrid cloud developments
·     Artificial intelligence in collaboration
·     Visual collaboration
·     Communication-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS)
·     Mobile-first strategy

This report provides a detailed assessment of the cloud IP telephony and UC&C services Market in Latin America, providing segmentations for several variables, such as geography, customer size, type of license, industry vertical, technology platform, architecture type, IP-phone-as–a-Service, type of access, and market share. The base year of this study is 2018. Revenue and users are forecast until 2025.


Author: Sebastian Menutti