Voice over IP-based companies continue to bring in the cash.   Business provider 8x8 (News - Alert) and Voxbone have reported increased growth with 8x8 announcing a record FY 2012 third quarter.  Meanwhile, Nextiva announced it plans for "significant workforce expansion" this year.

Total revenue for 8x8 in 3Q 2012 was $23.3 million, a 31 percent increase compared to the same period last year and a 17 percent sequential increase compared to its prior quarter of $19.8 million. Total revenue from business customers, including hosted communications as well as cloud services, grew 42 percent year over and represents 93 percent of total revenue. At the end of the quarter, 8x8 had 27,677 business customers, with the average new customer purchasing 14.1 services. Business customer average service revenue rose to $239 per month, as compared to $207 in the prior quarter.

Moving forward, 8x8 expects to bring continued success on the hosting side of its business as well as larger businesses and government agencies moving toward cloud solutions. The company is also squeezing down its business subscriber acquisition cost, paying about $92 per service, as compared to $101 in the prior quarter and $99 in the same period last year.

But you don't have to be in California to post continued growth. Brussels-based Voxbone (News - Alert) reported its revenues rose 19 percent overall, with minutes of use on its network increasing to 2.8 billion, by 33 percent.   Increased "lift" came from customers such as Telefonica (News - Alert) and IBasis. 

As part of its 2011 growth, Voxbone incorporated its U.S. subsidiary, added regional business development executives in North America and Southeast Asia, opened an office in Mumbai, and extended services to Vietnam. It deployed its own network infrastructure in Germany, Luxembourg, and Spain and plans to expand its 51 country network footprint to an additional five to seven countries in Asia and South America.   Voxbone now has 67 employees worldwide.

And the good times are rolling in other VoIP services as well. Privately held Nextiva says it plans to more than double its current size by hiring "100 employees or more" throughout 2012; the company currently has over 120 employees in its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.

It will be interesting to watch VoIP and especially hosted VoIP over the next year. A lot of businesses are warming up to the idea of moving away from having to capital expense/operational expense a large PBX (News - Alert) infrastructure and moving to hosted services which can be rightsized on a per seat basis. 

If this trend continues, hosted firms should continue their steady growth while PBX companies are going to start to show losses; especially in the 2-500 segment of the market.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3 2012, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration click here.

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