Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) solution which use open source software are slowly being adopted by more firms, it has reportedly been claimed.

The presence of only a few open source providers at the VoiceCon Sprint 2007 Conference in the US was taken by Computer Weekly as a hint that the technology has yet to be fully accepted.

Senior network analyst at 3M, Murray Butler, said at the conference: "The drive for open source solutions to real problems is seeping out of the desktop and server racks into other areas of IT that are traditionally closed platforms."

At the forefront of open source VoIP has been Digium which was the first innovator of free, open source internet telephony with its Asterisk platform and works with the talents of the worldwide development community to refine its products.

However, research company the Yankee Group suggested that such innovation is still needed to see open source VoIP become the solution of choice for the industry.

Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president of enterprise research at the Yankee Group, reportedly said that at the current time, VoIP was "too early in the development cycle to be open sourced".