VoIP News: November 2007

Taking advantage of flexible working opportunities can allow UK workers to reduce their stress levels, it has been suggested. Companies are becoming more willing to offer employees the chance to work from home or alter their working hours due to improvements in communications technology, such as broadband or secure VoIP telephony services. And according to International Stress Management Association (ISMA), employees can free their minds of large amounts of stress by embracing flexible working.

Although broadband has spread across the UK and prompted the growth of services such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), the relatively low speed of connections has attracted criticism. Envious eyes have turned to South Korea, where fibre optic lines have allowed surfers to access the internet at speeds up to forty times faster than in the UK. Explaining the reason behind this lag experienced by Britain, a spokesperson for the Internet Services Providers' Association placed the blame on the failings of the traditional telephone network.

A new technology which should allow VoIP servers to seamlessly talk to one another is to be overseen by the UK domain name registry Nominet, it has been announced. The not-for-profit company will help manage the implementation of a new internet protocol called Enum which allows web networks to convert a phone number into a web page address, making it compatible with a number of VoIP services. This will allow net users to make phone calls over the net without having to rely on third-party applications such as Skype, which attracted criticism earlier this year after its services went offline for three days without warning.

More cash needs to be pumped into improving the country's broadband infrastructure, according to one expert. JupiterResearch Europe research director Ian Fogg claims that upgrades such as fibre to the home (FTTH) and fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) will be impossible to embrace unless more investment is put into the sector. Speaking at an eForum debate in Westminster, Mr Fogg added that experts were yet to develop a unique application "that can only be delivered over next-generation broadband".

Despite the huge savings that can be made through installing VoIP technology, many businesses are still failing to sign up. Security fears are said to be a major factor in many companies avoiding deploying VoIP - although new technology means that security need not be an issue. Last month, Eric Vyncke, an engineer at Cisco Systems told delegates at a two-day RSA Conference that past security concerns were still influencing business-owners but that VoIP can be secure if the necessary precautions are taken.