VoIP News: General VoIP

VoIP 'could still change telecoms'

Speculation that VoIP is not the game-changing technology that it was hailed to be is premature, according to one expert.

Victor Keegan, a writer for the Guardian, explained that some pundits have claimed that VoIP is dying out as a medium - "strangled by regulation and the determination of telcos to resist a highly disruptive technology".

However, he believes that VoIP still has the potential to be "disruptive" and change the face of the market, mainly because of the potential for free phone calls it offers.

He listed a number of reasons as to why VoIP could still redefine telecoms.

"First, disruptive technologies take time to displace existing ones," he said.

"Second, the prospect of a prolonged recession will make people think of cheaper ways of phoning, particularly abroad."

VoIP has been moving increasingly into the mainstream, with industry watchdog Ofcom ruling last year that all VoIP providers must allow their users to make 999 emergency calls.

Posted on: 2009-01-08, in: General VoIP

---

VoIP call centres 'to weather downturn'

Call centres which use VoIP phones are likely to do better in light of the worldwide economic slump than many other sectors, according to a new study.

Infonetics Research revealed that the IP contact centre (IPCC) market performed well last year, with growth of 37 per cent compared with 2007, despite the well-documented slowdown of the global economy.

The firm said the Asia Pacific region was particularly strong, although vendors as a whole reported good sales.

In terms of the coming year, Infonetics predicted that the overall unified communications market would slow in line with spending on telephony in general, but that the IPCC sector would do better than others.

"The IPCC market will slow down in 2009, but should do relatively well as customers find IP contact centres, self service, and automation cost effective ways to deliver on customer service," said Matthias Machowinski, the firm's directing analyst for enterprise voice and data.

Infonetics also revealed that the first half of last year saw more than one million IPCC seats sold globally.

Posted on: 2009-01-07, in: General VoIP

---

Text transcription VoIP solutions 'to be big in 2009'

VoIP solutions capable of voice-to-text transcriptions will be a big feature of 2009, it has been claimed.

Robert Poe from VoIP News explained that the service is already popular among users, because it allows them to read their messages "in any order instead of having to negotiate a tedious key-press menu to listen to them in sequence".

Additionally, many services allow voice messages to be recorded which are then sent as text messages or emails.

However, VoIP providers will also find the technology useful, as they will be able to charge for the service.

"Since transcription usually requires some human intervention, no one expects such services to be free," said Mr Poe.

"That means providers don't have to wait to build a large user base before earning revenue."

A study released last month found that most small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) without VoIP solutions would like have one in the future.

The research, conducted by Omniboss for Viatel, revealed that more than half of SMEs did not have VoIP, but 95 per cent of those would like it.

Posted on: 2009-01-07, in: General VoIP

---

VoIP solutions 'can save 20-30 per cent' on bills

Large enterprises can make significant cost savings on their phone bills by adopting VoIP solutions, it has been claimed.

Stefania Viscusi, from TMCnet.com, revealed that firms which adopt the internet telephony technology could see reductions of 20 to 30 per cent.

"For companies with a high volume of calls, VoIP phone systems help cut expenses and add to the bottom line as savings are linked to every call made," she explained.

Ms Viscusi added that many firms with multiple locations can see telecoms costs go up quickly as new offices are added, but "with a VoIP phone system these costs can be eliminated since all calls made are made on one network, reducing costs, regardless of where the office is physically located".

In December, Tim McCreery from eWeek.com explained that businesses looking at deploying VoIP solutions should check their network capabilities first.

He said that many firms mistakenly believe the VoIP network will be the same as that of their conventional phone system.

Posted on: 2009-01-02, in: General VoIP

---

Crisis 'led to VoIP uptake'

As the year draws to a close, one commentator has been discussing what 2008 meant for the telecommunications industry.

Ian Williams, from vnunet.com, claimed that the year's most reported event - the financial crisis - actually caused many companies to use VoIP phones in their business.

By sending call information over the internet or on company intranets, VoIP phones can offer significant cost savings.

"There has been a noticeable uptake of technologies such as VoIP, unified communications and video conferencing," said Mr Williams.

"As the economic situation worsened over the course of the year, companies sought ways of maintaining close communications with branches and customers, while minimising the cost of travel and phone bills."

This increased popularity was reflected in figures released by Infonetics Research earlier this month.

According to the report, worldwide IP PBX deployments increased between the second and third quarter of 2008, seeing growth of nine per cent in revenue and seven per cent in lines.

Posted on: 2008-12-31, in: General VoIP

---