The company that I work for has increased the number of Telecommunications employees at the same ratio as IT employees after converting to VoIP. We have the same service contracts with the same vendors and we use the same cable installers.

Going to VoIP does have some tangible benefits for the company, though. Some of our sites don't have any technical support staff on site. Moving phones at those sites is now a breeze: every single jack in the office (except analog ports labeled as such) is connected to a power over ethernet data switch. When people want to move around, they can move their phone and notebook PC easily. Plug in anything anywhere and it works. Our Telecommunications staff used to talk non-technical staff through moving patch cables over the phone. Now our Telecommunications people spend time on more interesting things.

I was on a trip to New Zealand a couple of years ago. I took my cell phone and a good quality USB headset to use with a softphone package installed on my notebook. I could use the softphone for free (cell rate was expen$ive) with the same voice quality as the cell. People could even call me at my extension when I was sitting in an office or hotel room in New Zealand.

Anyway, my company may not be typical but we aren't changing our Telecommunications hiring practices as a result of VoIP.