VoIP News: January 2008

Broadband customers could be missing out on faster connection speeds, improved service and greater savings because they are afraid of being tied into a lengthy contract, a new survey has found. The report from comparison site BroadbandChoices says that with the new year savings drive underway, 69 per cent of respondents would change their broadband package if they got cheaper rates. A further 51 per cent would change if they were offered a faster connection.

London-based IP specialists see 80 per cent annual increase in sales of Aastra products. Telappliant has been named 'SIP Handset Distributor of the Year' by communications company, Aastra. Telappliant achieved 80 per cent uplift in sales of Aastra SIP handsets in the last twelve months, largely due to the introduction of Aastra's versatile 5i Series of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) handsets and the increasing demand for Internet Protocol (IP)-based telephony.

The SIPconnect Technical Recommendation has been ratified by an industry advocacy group for session initiation protocol (SIP), it has been reported. The recommendation aims to introduce uniform standards and protocols for direct internet protocol (IP) peering between SIP-enabled providers of IP private branch exchange (PBX) systems and voice over internet protocol (VoIP), TMCnet reports. The SIP Forum ratified the recommendation at the Internet Telephony & Conference Expo.

A new version of Asterisk, the open source telephony engine and tool kit, is set to be launched later this year to support "much larger" deployments of internet protocol private branch exchange (PBX) systems and voice over internet protocol (VoIP), Network World reports. The new version of the Asterisk software, which was created in 1999 by Mark Spencer, will be released through the company he founded, Digium.

Even the smallest company can deploy a sophisticated telephone system using digital private branch exchange (PBX) and voice over internet protocol (VoIP), according to a technology expert. Paul Taylor, the Financial Times' "gadget guru", says digital PBX systems have overcome many of the problems associated with their analogue counterparts, such as high cost, complex set-up and inflexible features.