VoIP adoption growth 'requires more LLU'

In order to spread the take-up of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephony, there needs to be more local loop unbundling (LLU), it has been suggested.

LLU is the process where traditional telephony operators open up their networks to other firms who then offer service such as high-speed internet and VoIP telephony systems directly to the consumer.

So if this was carried out across the country, there would be more competition among firms which may benefit customers and boost the adoption of VoIP, according to Eli Katz chairman of the Internet Telephony Services Providers Association.

"Things like unbundling, things like making it easier to sell - these are all critical requirements to enable significant market adoption of IP [telephony]," he said.

However, Mr Katz noted that the UK was lagging behind other European countries in LLU due to the competitive nature of the traditional telephony market which is reluctant to allow their networks to be used to sell IP telephony systems.

Despite this, Ofcom's annual Communications Market Report 2007 found that consumers are increasingly using VoIP telephony systems.

At the end of 2006, some 20 per cent of respondents to Ofcom's survey said they were making calls online, up from 14 per cent at the end of 2005.