Packnet Blog

A key survey carried out each year has predicted that enterprises in the US are likely to continue to increase their investment in both internet protocol (IP) telephony and unified communications (UC) between now and 2016 by around 10% each year.

The survey, by major independent research organisation InfoTrack (itself a division of telecommunications research organisation T3i Group), also claims that the market in IP telephony will be dominated by hosted services, to the extent that between 2011 and 2016, expenditure on hosted IP telephony services such as business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) will have tripled.

BT has announced plans for the upgrading of 98 exchanges across the UK with superfast broadband cable by the end of 2013, as part of its on-going £2.5 billion national implementation programme.

The confirmed areas will be provided with access to the high speed network via a combination of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) connections.

Digium, the organisation behind Asterisk, the popular open source software solution for the internet protocol (IP) telephony and business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) industries, has announced the appointment of David Duffett in the role of Asterisk Community Director.

Duffett’s new role will involve the promotion and general communication of the benefits of Asterisk technology among both potential and existing Digium clients on a global scale.

A new proprietary software application claims to enable suppliers of session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking to offer their customers enhanced communications provision without the need for any additional major hardware installation.

Communications software specialist company, Broadsoft, says its new solution offers the opportunity to add both unified communications (UC) capability and mobile connectivity to SIP trunking installations much more speedily and straightforwardly than would normally be required to secure such enhancements.

Following its recent adoption of business VoIP (voice over internet protocol), the University of Nottingham has announced that it has also deployed a sophisticated audio conferencing facility using internet protocol (IP) telephony technology.

The university, which depends on audio conferencing to facilitate collaboration between its three campuses in Nottingham, China and Malaysia, says that it chose a host audio conferencing solution – akin to the type of remote service provided by a business VoIP provider – to save on capital outlay.

The North Carolina Senior Care Council (NcSCC), an organisation which is part of a US-wide group providing care provision for the over-65s, says it has replaced its inefficient and confusing mixture of three different ageing business phone systems with a single state of the art business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) telephone service.

Rather than embark on a wholesale programme of hardware replacement for its new internet protocol (IP) telephony system, the NcSCC says it has instead opted to access the network via the cloud, using the services of a host business VoIP provider.

The adoption of internet protocol (IP) telephony, -and business VoIP (voice over internet protocol) in particular – could well become more feasible in Birmingham following confirmation of European Union clearance of a £10 million government grant for helping to deliver superfast broadband to the city.

The grant had originally been announced by the UK government back in March as part of its Urban Broadband Fund. With the EU having decided that the funding complies with its rules on state aid, Birmingham City Council is now expected to begin sourcing commercial partners this autumn, with a view to collaborating on the development the new broadband network.

£32 million worth of additional funding has been pledged for superfast broadband development in Scotland, following a government review of the region’s infrastructure needs.

According to media reports, the UK government has now decided that Scotland’s challenging topography, coupled with low levels of funding from local sources, has meant that a significant level of investment over and above the £68.8 million originally granted for the region by Broadband delivery UK (BDUK) back in August 2011, is urgently required.

Digium, the organisation behind the open-source software enabling the operation of countless internet protocol (IP) telephony business phone systems across the globe, has been recognised with a prestigious accolade at a major recent US trade function.

The accolade – the 2012 Global Trade Award – was given to Digium at the recent World Trade Day gathering in Huntsville, organised by the North Alabama International Trade association (NAITA), in conjunction with the Madison County Commission.

A new report has commented on what it sees as a growing impetus towards the future implementation of unified communications (UC) among call centres using VoIP (voice over internet protocol) for their business phone systems.

The report, published by the subscription arm of research organisation Heavy Reading IP Services, identifies this push for UC – whereby different communications are received via a single source, regardless of their original transmission platform – as being driven by two growing trends.