Crisis 'led to VoIP uptake'

As the year draws to a close, one commentator has been discussing what 2008 meant for the telecommunications industry.

Ian Williams, from vnunet.com, claimed that the year's most reported event - the financial crisis - actually caused many companies to use VoIP phones in their business.

By sending call information over the internet or on company intranets, VoIP phones can offer significant cost savings.

"There has been a noticeable uptake of technologies such as VoIP, unified communications and video conferencing," said Mr Williams.

"As the economic situation worsened over the course of the year, companies sought ways of maintaining close communications with branches and customers, while minimising the cost of travel and phone bills."

This increased popularity was reflected in figures released by Infonetics Research earlier this month.

According to the report, worldwide IP PBX deployments increased between the second and third quarter of 2008, seeing growth of nine per cent in revenue and seven per cent in lines.