The business benefits of deploying WiFi-enabled voice over IP (VoIP) telephony have become too great for enterprise leaders to ignore, reports Juniper Research. It predicts that spending on wireless VoIP will rocket from $2 billion in 2007 to $15 billion by 2012.

That growth is being driven by the potential cost savings that can be made from the switch and the improvements in quality, which have made WiFi-based VoIP enterprise-ready, Juniper reports.

Spending on wireless VoIP equipment can be split into three main categories: VoIP access points; wireless local area network switches and controllers; and WiFi-enabled handsets.

Juniper predicts that equipment maker Cisco will dominate the market in the first two categories, because its size and market presence make it difficult for rivals to compete against it. However, the handset market looks to be far more open, with a large number of vendors in the space in a good position to build a significant market presence.