International tennis competition to use VoIP

Tennis players are used to sending things at high speed over the net, so should adapt easily to the introduction of VoIP at world-renowned tournament the Stella Artois Championships.

The competition, starting next week and held at the Queen's Club in London, will use upgraded WiFi services, including a move to VoIP communications provided by Max WiFi.

Internet connections and the network will be upgraded, with some 60 phones made available for all officials, security, tournament directors and members of the media.

"This is our fifth year supplying the Artois Championships with WiFi, but our first to offer a full IP telecoms package," said Richard Hughes, Max WiFi's technical director.

"We were looking for a VoIP solution for sometime, firstly it had to be financially viable and secondly, able to be installed easily as it is used by an array of clients at separate events around the country."

The company eventually chose solutions provided by Voicenet due to the plug-and-play of its units making it easy to use, while other innovations for this year see the WiFi network spreading all across the venue.

According to Mr Hughes, this will "enable photographers to send photos to their news agencies from centre court".

The players attending this year's Stella Artois Championships have not yet been confirmed, although many of the game's big names use it as grass court preparation for Wimbledon which starts on June 25th.