Expert highlights VoIP hardware awareness

UK VoIP hardware is beginning to be understood by the lawmakers of the country, according to a report by John Higgins, director general of Intellect - the UK's technology industry trade association.

Higgins said that the Digital Britain report "has contributed significantly to the sense that politicians of all parties understand just how vital next-generation broadband, and the digital economy as a whole, is to the UK’s future competitiveness - even though they may differ on the route to achieving it".

Next-generation broadband is a duel term, denoting both the widespread availability of broadband for the lay consumer and the upgrading of key areas of the national fibre optic network to allow for greater speeds - such as BT's recent launch of a high-speed 24Mbps (Megabits per second) line.

The effectiveness of VoIP systems increases in tandem with greater broadband provisioning, while the costs of a VoIP network decrease as bandwidth increases.

As the ideas in Digital Britain take shape and schemes begin to run, VoIP will rise in importance along with the UK's quality of access to high-speed, universal broadband.