VoIP News: IP PBX

The communications – from business broadband to internet telephony – at the new National Football Centre will be overseen by BT. St George's Park in Burton upon Trent, the location of the facility, is to feature a state-of-the-art communications infrastructure. BT has been chosen by The Football Association (FA) to implement the technology and has signed a five-year, multi-million pound deal to do so.

The increasing uptake of VoIP solutions among businesses is expected to provide a boost to growth in the unified communications sector. A new report from Canalys has shown "intense" competition in the European, Middle East and African arenas, with major players in the PBX call control market experiencing "tough" conditions last quarter. However, in spite of the hardship of the last three-month period, Duncan Clark, a senior analyst for the firm, predicted continuing growth in the field.

The US market for hosted IP telephony is reaching maturity, a new report has shown. A study by Companies and Markets suggested that 20 per cent of business telephony will be hosted by 2020, with consumers becoming more aware of the benefits that such technology can bring as accessibility improves. The research found that VoIP solutions are more likely to be adopted by smaller businesses with restricted budgets, while larger organisations with fewer financial concerns tend to lean towards unified communications (UC).

Businesses looking to invest in VoIP hardware, IP PBX solutions and other telephony equipment should bear in mind that some are more suitable for medium-sized enterprises than smaller organisations. That is according to Greg Potter, research analyst at In-Stat, who stated that broadband IP telephony is one option available to small firms, offering them a number of advantages including low monthly service fees and low-cost long distance calls.

Firms that use IP telephony to enhance their communications network need to integrate social media seamlessly into their operations, it has been claimed. Tim Gibbon, director at communications consultancy Elemental, said too many firms treat their interaction with sites such as Twitter and Facebook as a separate marketing tool, rather than incorporating it into everything they do. This is a "knee-jerk" reaction, Mr Gibbon continued, which results in the techniques used not being inclusive in relation to customers and clients.