VoIP News: July 2008

A solar power company has said that mobile phones will be charged with energy from the sun in the future. Cardiff-based G24 Innovations (G24i) is planning to sell simple mobile phones packaged with solar chargers in Africa, but in the future want to sell chargers for all kinds of phones, reports Reuters. "Ultimately in a few years you'll be able to buy your mobile phone or Blackberry fully charged and you'll never have to plug it in," said Bob Hertzberg, G24i chairman.

Increasing numbers of Wi-Fi hotspots are appearing worldwide allowing more locations where VoIP phone calls can be made, a report has suggested. The report, by ABI Research, found that the Wi-Fi market is expected to grow by 40 per cent compared with 2007 and its business model has been changing rapidly. It found that companies such as Starbucks have been altering how they look at the technology, for instance offering a virtually free service, meaning customers can take full advantage of the low cost of VoIP phone calls.

Software-only VoIP solutions are the future for small to medium businesses (SMBs), but that future is a long way away, it has been claimed. Garrett Smith, a blogger on voipinsider. com, said that while software-only VoIP solutions seem like a "perfect fit" for SMBs - because of the lack of hardware costs, for instance - the user experience will be very different.

Businesses that use phones as their primary communication can gain a lot of switching to VoIP solutions from conventional PSTN systems, it has been claimed. Kirsten Kiya, a blogger on Best Syndication News, says that VoIP solutions utilise a package of switching methods for sending the calls, which is more efficient than PSTN services. This lowers costs as the unique VoIP services are not as regulated as PSTN calls and also enhances call productivity.

The managing director of TNS Technology has claimed that BT's fibre-optic broadband project will fail to make the UK one of the top countries in terms of connection speeds. In a letter to the Financial Times, Amy Cashman said that while the investment would "propel the UK forward", it would have speeds less than Japan and South Korea do presently. The UK would be brought in line with France, but Ms Cashman said her company believes that all three of these markets will have further investment before 2012.