VoIP News: December 2007

Experts are predicting that VoIP telephony solutions stand to benefit from advances in the UK's broadband network. The Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) said that as demand for high-quality online TV grows, broadband providers will increasingly warm to the idea of upgrading their connections. Countries such as South Korea, France and Germany have already begun investing in ultra-fast 100 megabit broadband networks, capable of streaming up to a dozen high-definition TV channels.

Sneaking in just in time for the New Year celebrations, Digium has announced the millionth download of its Asterisk open source IP telephony platform. Coming at the end of the 24th straight quarter of growth for the firm, the milestone highlights both the expanding influence of VoIP and the importance of Asterisk in this process. "I am very proud of the great strides Digium made in 2007 to demonstrate Asterisk's unquestionable growth and impact on the SMB and enterprise markets," said Digium chief executive Danny Windham, in a recent press release.

Homes and businesses in South Yorkshire are in line for a significant boost to their broadband speeds as a new fibre-based network is to be built in the region. The Yorkshire Forward development agency has appointed French firm Thales to build the new network which will provide speeds of up to 50 mbps. Covering almost 600,000 homes across South Yorkshire, the fibre-optic connections will substantially increase the reliability and quality of VoIP services in the area due to the greater bandwidth available.

More than one in three British small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) feel positive about the coming year, according to new research. A study by Alliance & Leicester found that some 35 per cent of the SME population in the UK are feeling optimistic about their future, with 46 per cent claiming the outlook for 2008 was the same as this year. These results are a welcome positive sign after a year of economic turbulence, with both consumers and businesses of all sizes struggling with the credit crunch.

Businesses looking to tap into the cost saving and efficiency-boosting benefits of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) systems have been offered tips on how to integrate it successfully. Jocelyn Philbrook, the vice president of corporate marketing at Canadian-based Sonus Networks highlighted the speed at which IP telephony services have spread in the business world. She told the IT Business Canada website: "What we've seen in the past five years is the quality assurance and high speed bandwidth that are able to support multiple types of communications-video, voice, data-very rapidly and with a high degree of quality throughout the network.