VoIP News: December 2008

Using the internet has become such an integral part of people's lives that those who cannot interact with it feel they are ignored by the wider world, new research has shown. A study by Post Office Broadband found that 18 per cent of non-internet users felt this way, while 20 per cent did not like the fact that they were unable to access public information that web-savvy people could. However, the research also indicated that 71 per cent of people tried to teach friends and family how to get online - but one in ten people said that the attempt ended in an argument.

As the year draws to a close, one commentator has been discussing what 2008 meant for the telecommunications industry. Ian Williams, from vnunet. com, claimed that the year's most reported event - the financial crisis - actually caused many companies to use VoIP phones in their business.

The government has been called on to invest heavily in fibre optic technology by a Microsoft researcher. Edinburgh University's professor Christopher Bishop, chief scientist at the firm's Cambridge research centre, told the Observer that the benefits of doing so would be two-fold. Firstly, it would improve the UK's infrastructure - helping it compete globally - and secondly it would provide the large-scale kind of investment the government had pitched as a way of fighting off the worst effects of the economic downturn.

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to deploy VoIP solutions have been told that "there has never been a better time" to do so, according to an industry expert. Nick Galea, chief executive and founder of 3CX, was talking to Italian site voipblog about the potential growth of VoIP in 2009. He claimed that mobileVoIP solutions would continue to see growth, as would the sector as a whole.

The number of fibre broadband connections in the UK is set to increase dramatically over the next five years, according to a new report. A study by analysis firm Point Topic has claimed that around four million homes and businesses will be using the technology to go online by 2013. This will account for roughly 20 per cent of the 22 million total broadband connections by that time, with "well over 11 million" fibre lines predicted for 2016.