VoIP phones could be an election winner

Take up of IP telephony solutions in the UK are likely to receive a boost over the next few years no matter who wins the forthcoming election.

Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats all announced plans to deploy super-fast broadband across the country in their election manifestos last week.

Super-fast broadband would encourage adoption of VoIP solutions by enriching user experience through increased speed and reliability.

However, the three main political parties provided few specifics on their plans for next-generation access in their manifestos, according to independent broadband news and information site thinkbroadband.com.

Andrew Ferguson, editor of thinkbroadband.com, said: "Labour and the other parties are keeping the technical detail very sparse".

The Tories have pledged a next-generation speed of 100Mbps, while Labour and the Liberal Democrats have not made a commitment to a specific speed in their manifestos.

But there is a good chance that over half of the country will have 100Mbps access "with no work from any party" within the next few years due to private sector investment, Mr Ferguson explained.

Broadband subscriptions worldwide will rise to half a billion over the next year, according to Informa Telecoms & Media, which could boost global VoIP traffic.