VoIP accessibility threatens business phones

Businesses no longer need to splash out on specialist handsets when adopting IP telephony solutions, No Jitter has said.

This is because "the latest and greatest" features of VoIP phones are now accessible via computers, mobile phones and analogue phones, according to the communications networks blog.

Blogger Dave Michels said: "Existing phones and mobile devices represent the biggest threat to the traditional enterprise proprietary phone."

"The phone is no longer the factor in determining available features, and if any phone will do, then existing phones make a lot of financial sense," he explained.

Mr Michels, also the president of telecommunications experts Verge1 Consulting, added that softphones - the computer-based equivalent of a telephone - also "represent a major threat" to conventional business phones.

He said that softphones are "winning over converts" because they "offer many benefits, price and portability being the big ones".

The healthy growth of the VoIP solutions market is set to continue over the next few years, IBISWorld said recently.

VoIP was the best performing industry of the last decade, according to figures from the industry market research company.