The EMEA enterprise telephony market in the third quarter of 2003 was up by 4.7 per cent compared with Q3 2002, according to research by Canalys.

The study showed fluctuations of more than 20 per cent in vendors' line shipments. It also found almost 40 per cent of total shipments were made by lots of smaller vendors with low sales.

Adrian Marsh, director of business and channel strategy at Nortel's EMEA enterprise group, said: "As can be expected in a market such as IP telephony, lots of firms are trying to get in on the act. But none of the start-ups have above 1.3 per cent market share."

Rachel Power, an analyst at Canalys, said: "Companies such as Siemens, with a 20 per cent share, and Alcatel, with 15.5 per cent of the market, naturally have a strong showing because they are strong in Germany and France respectively.

"There is no national PBX vendor in the UK. In EMEA, it's a case of traditional vendors holding their markets."

Despite year-on-year sales increases from Siemens, Nortel and Avaya, Alcatel and Ericsson fared badly, losing 8.8 and 21.2 per cent of line shipment shares, compared with Q3 2002.

"There are spikes in the market because a lot of large deals are being done," Power said. "This will settle down over time."

Avaya shipments saw the biggest increase from Q3 2002. Power said: "Ericsson has had a difficult year, with Damovo signing up other vendors. Rivals are looking at its installed bases."

However, Ericsson's director of marketing in EMEA, Frederic Boone, said his firm's enterprise products put it in third place in the European Union. "We look at this from a yearly perspective," Boone said.

"We reach 100,000 customers and have more than 20 million lines in operation."