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The migration to IP telephony continues. Synergy Research Group has reported, for Q1 2008, that traditional PBX sales are decreasing as IP telephony becomes more attractive to the SMB market.

The worldwide enterprise telephony market is growing 4.0% year-on-year, with the fast growing segments being IP phones (14.8%) and enterprise IP telephony (11.7%).

Many small and medium businesses are realising the benefit of migrating to an IP telephony solution: they are able to consolidate their voice and data networks, consolidate their personnel across many sites and gain a greater competitive presence through the feature-rich functions available through IP telephony.

If you are thinking about migrating your business telephony then please refer to our products and services sections or simply call us on 0845 0000 800.

Smartest IP Phone System Graduates with 4.0

Graduation time is a major milestone in the life of a student, and Zultys Technologies, the premier developer and manufacturer of pure SIP communication solutions, is very pleased today to announce that it has reached a significant milestone of its own.

Zultys, the company that brought the first pure-SIP, standalone communications solution to the marketplace back in 2002, now marks the commencement of a new era of interoperability and productivity with the arrival of MX Software Version 4.0. As the powerful backbone of the award-winning flagship line of Media eXchange (MX) servers - the MX250 and MX30 - this new build offers a feature-rich class of integrated services and opens the door of the Zultys platform to world-class manufacturers such as Polycom and Aastra Telecom.

“We believe this release speaks volumes about the power of the MX systems. It clearly defines our corporate strategy to implement technical developments and innovative engineering to gain mindshare in the SMB space,” said Vladimir Movshovich, VP of Technology, Zultys Technologies.

ZIP 5xi Integration

The pinnacle of v4.0’s improvements is full integration and support of Zultys’ new ZIP 5xi line of advanced SIP-based IP phones and expansion modules. Designed and engineered by Aastra Telecom, the new ZIP 5xi line is the perfect complement to the MX30 and MX250 systems:

• ZIP 51i - 3 Line x 16 Character display, 1 call appearance with transfer capability
• ZIP 53i - 3 Line x 16 Character display, 6 programmable keys, 9 call appearances
• ZIP 55i - 144 x 75 pixel backlit LCD, 6 soft keys & 6 programmable keys, 9 call appearances
• ZIP 57i - 144 x 128 pixel backlit LCD, 30 programmable keys, 12 soft keys, 9 call appearances
• ZIP 57i CT - As per ZIP 57i plus integrated W-DECT cordless handset
• ZIP 536M - Expansion module with 36 programmable keys, LED status indication
• ZIP 560M - Expansion module with 60 programmable keys, LCD based labels, LED status indication

Integrated features include:

• Multiple line/call appearance keys with in-use LED indications
• Comprehensive Busy Lamp Field (BLF) support
• Programmable function keys
• Intuitive, user-centric screen menus
• Full duplex conference quality hands-free operation
• Built-in headset jack
• Multi-key expansion modules available
• Embedded XML browser
• Full GUI-based configuration via MX Administrator
• Supports 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) and AC wall adapter
• Provisioning, Park, Pickup, Page and Busy Lamp Field (BLF) operation

Additional Features and Enhancements

Version 4.0 also offers increased functionality for the remote user. For example, administrators and supervisors now have the ability to assign users from the most remote MX systems to any local group, enabling inbound call centers or operators to offload peak calling volumes or extend work hours across multiple time zones.

Version 4.0 also enhances the integration between its MXIE UI and Microsoft Outlook, enabling increased unified communications based on with this widely used email client. System control can now be shared between the MXIE interface and the phone itself through enhanced DTMF operations. Mac support is expanded to improve interoperability with new Intel-powered Mac clients.

Press release by Zultys, 14/05/08.
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Session border controller manufacturer Newport Networks today reveals that managing quality of service is seen as the biggest obstacle to IP-based voice calls (VoIP) ahead of security and billing concerns, according to a recent poll of telecoms industry delegates at networking software event, SofNet. The results indicate that VoIP adoption rates are expected to slow if operators and service providers do not take steps to ensure quality as well as address security concerns for VoIP services.

A surprising 60 percent of delegates believed that VoIP is ‘reasonably secure’ with 1 in 10 considering it to be secure with just 30 percent believing it to be insecure. These figures are interesting considering that the majority of SIP based VoIP services do not use encryption. A significant majority (60 per cent) of delegates surveyed believe that service providers should be responsible for security, followed by 35 per cent feeling that both the service provider and subscriber should be responsible, and 5 per cent believing that it should be the sole responsibility of the subscriber.

When asked what they thought was the biggest threat to continued adoption of VoIP, nearly half of experts surveyed (43 per cent) named quality of service, followed by identity theft (28 per cent), lack of interconnect between services (20 per cent), and denial of service attacks (9 per cent). The majority (65 percent) of delegates predict that a two-tier VoIP billing model will emerge with service differentiation based on quality and price. Another 35 per cent of delegates think that more end-users will be willing to pay more for VoIP security as awareness of potential risks increases.

Dave Gladwin, VP of Product Marketing at Newport Networks comments, “It is clear that operators and service providers need to take action now to address fundamental issues such as quality of service and security to ensure they continue to retain or increase their market share. It is interesting to see that delegates placed a higher value on quality of service over security and billing concerns, pointing towards a need for better managed, robust IP networks to meet demand.”

Article courtesy of Comms Business News, 16/05/08.

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