VoIP News: October 2007

Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) solution which use open source software are slowly being adopted by more firms, it has reportedly been claimed. The presence of only a few open source providers at the VoiceCon Sprint 2007 Conference in the US was taken by Computer Weekly as a hint that the technology has yet to be fully accepted. Senior network analyst at 3M, Murray Butler, said at the conference: "The drive for open source solutions to real problems is seeping out of the desktop and server racks into other areas of IT that are traditionally closed platforms.

UK companies and consumers are used to being able to access fast broadband connections from most destinations, either through an ADSL line or wireless. This is lucky for business as without this infrastructure, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) would be difficult to install as a viable alternative to a fixed phone line. But new figures from the European Commission (EC) has highlighted that much of the rest of Europe is not keeping up with the UK.

British companies could save on their mobile phone costs by switching to a voice network that makes use of both fixed and portable connections, it has been suggested. A survey conducted by YouGov for VoIP firm Inclarity found that 65 per cent of employees in the UK make work-related calls from their office mobile phone more than twice a day. But the advent of fixed mobile convergence (FMC) may make the cost of making these calls unnecessary, Inclarity suggested.

Large numbers of small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the UK are considering setting up a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) connection in order to reduce communications costs and improve efficiency, new research shows. A report published in Business World referred to a study by Cisco Ireland, which found that 60 per cent of SMBs have plans to invest in a VoIP system in the near future. This increased interest from businesses has been prompted by falling costs for customers wishing to set up a VoIP network and bolstered by the adoption of these services by high-profile organisations such as the NHS.

While web connections of around 10MB per second have proved adequate for innovative online services such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), the academic world is set to gain access to much faster speeds. The Internet2 network offered by Level 3 Communications is aiming to link up universities, corporations and research groups and allow them to share vast amounts of data at speeds up to 100GB/s - equivalent to a one million MB/s connection.