CES launch broadens VoIP solutions

High-definition VoIP phone calls have taken a step forward with the launch of a new product.

At the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada, IP telephony solutions start-up Ooma launched various extensions for its VoIP hardware, including high-definition voice compatibility.

Ooma said the new offering showed it was ready to help any VoIP provider compete with the traditional companies in the field, as the capacity for high-definition VoIP phone calls makes VoIP increasingly competitive.

Telecommunications giant Orange recently announced plans to offer high-definition voice calls to UK consumers last this year.

Rich Buchanan, chief marketing officer at Ooma, said modern consumers live in a "calling purgatory - forced to find a compromise between shoddy cell phone reception in their homes and a featureless landline phone experience that hasn't innovated since the 1970's".

Ooma is the first residential phone service of its kind to support high-definition voice technology.

Mr Buchanan hopes the new product will "connect the gap that currently exists between advanced smart phone functionalities and the inherent limitations of the home phone".