VoIP News: October 2007

Upgrading to voice over internet protocol (VoIP) for phone calls can bring a number of benefits, but firms have been warned that they must secure their network from hackers. Cisco engineer and IP telephony author Eric Vyncke told a London conference that despite the efforts of manufacturers and providers, VoIP security is being comprised by a lack of knowledge from the firms paying to install it. "Nearly nobody is deploying secure IP telephony," he said.

More than 1. 3 million Londoners face a commute of more than an hour a day, new research shows, leading to calls for more flexible working. According to figures from the Trades Union Congress, workers in the capital are most likely to have the longest commute, but the number of people travelling to work for over an hour is rising all across the country.

Although the number of broadband ISPs has been whittled down to just six large companies, there remains a healthy spirit of competition, it has been suggested. Buy-outs of smaller firms have been a feature of the market over the last few months - with BT snapping up Madafish and Plusnet and a sizable part of Pipex being sold off to Tiscali. Along with Virgin Media, BSkyB, the Carphone Warehouse and Orange, these internet service providers account for 94 per cent of the broadband market.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are more open to allowing secretarial and administration staff to work from outside the office due to technological advances, it has been suggested. In recent years, the expansion of virtual private networks, wireless broadband connections and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) networks has meant that companies have more options as to where they place their non-essential staff.

Avoiding the commuter rush by working from home this winter could save lives, it has been suggested. Non-profit group Work Wise advised companies to set up virtual private networks and VoIP systems to allow their workers to stay at home to complete their tasks. The group highlighted official figures which showed the difference in casualties on the roads between the summer and winter months.