The network equipment vendor, in a briefing last week, also noted significant developments that may signal the arrival of IP as the technology-of-choice of Philippine businesses when it comes to communications.

"The adoption of IP in the Philippines may take place in 1 or 2 years," said Kunaciilan Nallapan, director for sales and business development of Alcatel-Lucent in South East Asia, adding that that there are now major industry movers that are leading the way in the adoption of IP, particularly BPO and telecommunications firms.

Industry estimates vary, but currently, almost all BPO locators, particularly call centers in the Philippines are heavily into VoIP or voice over IP applications particularly for outbound customer calls and technical support services.

For the telecommunications sector, dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. or PLDT has just recently announced a plan to upgrade its entire network.

PLDT is expected to make full use of IP technology as a critical component of its next-generation network plan.

The move of PLDT, being the dominant carrier, could ‘signal’ the widespread adoption of IP, Nallapan said, adding that competing carriers may have no choice but to follow suit and implement their own network upgrades.

The executive added that other carriers are expected to soon roll out their network upgrades to support IP.

But Nallapan said there are still no companies in the Philippines that are into "100 percent" IP and that most companies that may have IP in their systems uses the technology to augment existing systems.

The executive said there is still a good number of companies that do not see the need to "standardize" their communications infrastructures, which is one of the advantages that IP brings.

"With the telecommunications sector leading the way, we are seeing a huge demand for IP-based applications in the near future for the Philippines market," Nallapan said.

The executive noted that the good thing about IP is that even small companies can take advantage of the technology, because applications based on IP are getting relatively cheaper.

Nallapan said in line with this ‘prediction,’ Alcatel-Lucent has signed up a partnership deal with local IT distributor WSI to target small-to-medium-sized businesses for its IP solutions.

The executive further said Alcatel-Lucent is seeing a sizeable market potential for IP in this sector, considering that most SMBs in the country have yet to integrate IP in their communications systems.