Asterisk deployments 'growing rapidly'

Asterisk solutions have now been adopted in more than 170 countries and deployed on over a million servers worldwide, a report has revealed.

Creator and sponsor of the open-source VoIP software Digium stated the application is currently being used to handle billions of call minutes by governments, businesses, call centres and carriers across the globe.

It added that its popularity continues to increase, with over two million downloads recorded in 2010.

New projects on the horizon include a communications framework, which will allow scalable real-time communications and online marketplace functionality, it continued.

Bryan Johns, Digium's community director, said the appeal of the software has continued to grow as enterprises seek to cut costs and increase flexibility.

"Asterisk has made an indelible impression on the voice communications industry in the 11 years since it was released," he added.

Research firm Gartner recently revealed expenditure on telecoms software is set to grow faster than in any other IT sector over the next 12 months.