IP telephony solutions 'replacing phones'

Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone has proved highly successful in improving communications since the end of the 19th century, but its time may be coming to an end thanks to voice over internet protocol (VoIP), it has been suggested.

In a recent Ofcom survey, 20 per cent of respondents said they were making calls over the internet, an increase of six per cent wince the end of 2005, which shows the dominance of landline phones is being eaten away.

This is also the view of the chairman of the Internet Telephony Services Providers Association (ITSPA), Eli Katz, who suggested that IP telephony solutions are providing strong competition to traditional communication methods.

"When you're now contacting a person - that's now not just by phone," he said.

"You can be doing that via instant messaging, you can be doing that via chat, you can be doing that via video. And so a phone call just becomes one mode of communication. And all of that is then wrapped up under IP communications."

Mr Katz added that the greatest commercial uptake of these services is being seen among larger corporations, but he said that "we expect to see an enormous amount occur at the SME (small and medium enterprise) side as well".