VoIP News: January 2010

VoIP solutions are now available on the iPhone - Apple's ultra-popular product, which spawned the recent iPad. Google has introduced iPhone functionality into its Google Voice product, allowing users in both the enterprise and consumer space to use VoIP on the popular smartphone. All second-generation and onwards iPhones are 3G capable, meaning that it is more than likely that users will have access to the necessary bandwidth required to successfully communicate using VoIP.

An official online applications store for Asterisk solutions has been launched by Asterisk company Digium. AsteriskExchange is a marketplace for products featuring or incorporating Asterisk, such as Asterisk PBX, according to the communications technology firm. Asterisk is a free open source communications service that can be used by integrators and developers like VoIP providers to convert computers into communication systems.

Broadband subscriptions worldwide will rise to half a billion over the next year, Informa Telecoms & Media has said. Fixed broadband access is now almost universal in the UK and the world's other most affluent countries, according to the communications research company. The total of new fixed broadband subscriptions will grow from over 480 million last year to 500 million this year, Rob Gallagher, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said.

Big businesses worldwide are wasting £12 billion a year by failing to deploy their telecom services efficiently, Hudson & Yorke has said. Firms should engage with specialists, which could include VoIP providers, in order to lower their costs and improve their service, according to the telecommunications and network consultancy. Eight out of ten telecoms sourcing projects, possibly including those for VoIP solutions, are not as cost effective as they could be, a Hudson & Yorke study found.

O2 has removed the set-up fees for its mobilebroadband and free laptop packages, making it easier than ever for users to create their own VoIP solutions. Now a laptop, with mobile broadband, can be ordered online for as little as £25 a month, broadening the range of people who can take advantage and create their own personal IP telephony solutions. Laptops with mobile broadband allow users the freedom of true roaming, thanks to their internet connection coming through carrier provision, rather than omnipresent Wi-Fi.