Imago Communications has announced the results of its end-user research in conjunction with analyst company Ovum into attitudes and usage of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology.
The research reveals that VoIP applications that improve teleworking and employee mobility are the most popular, with both being cited by 61% of respondents when asked 'What applications are driving your move to VoIP?'. Some 86% of respondents also said that wireless VoIP was of 'significant interest' to their organisation.
The importance of improving communications with employees working outside the office was also evident, with 47% of respondents agreeing that enabling mobility was one of their goals, and 44% citing enhanced flexibility and 41% extending functionality to remote workers. A total of 47% said that the more general goal of improving communications was behind their move to VoIP.
The research also suggests that one of the most important reasons why organisations are adopting VoIP is to save money, with 69% of respondents stating that cost savings was a business goal behind the adoption of VoIP.
In addition, 75% of respondents that had deployed VoIP said that it was successful and had met all, or the majority, of their objectives. However 46% of respondents said that they still didn't fully understand the business benefits that VoIP and IP communications could offer and 67% of respondents stated that the interoperability of different suppliers' equipment in an IP network was a major worry. 

Telecomms technology company Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSX: NT) has said that it is continuing to drive the mass deployment of VoIP and multimedia services through a series of new strategic partnerships with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) technology companies.

The company said that Arcturus Networks Inc, D-Link Corporation Inc, Grandstream Networks Inc, NETGEAR, SIPquest, Sipura Technology Inc and TABLETmedia - which produce SIP-based access devices, data networking products and wireless clients - have joined Texas Instruments, i3 Micro, Polycom and Uniden as part of Nortel's collaborative open client initiative to promote industry-wide SIP adoption.

The initiative will see all the participants focus on bringing to market Nortel-interoperable SIP products that will expand the availability of VoIP services to consumers through products such as analog terminal adaptors and routers for home-based VoIP services. A spokesperson for the company said that the initiative will create a powerful catalyst for the adoption of SIP.

A good indicator of how hot a market is, could be the number of research reports published in a short space of time. Last month, three highlighted the subject of voice over Wi-Fi.
Infonetics Research believes wireless VoIP is already spreading steadily in the enterprise and will see even higher growth over the coming four years. Its report says that 113,000 Wi-Fi VoIP handsets were sold worldwide in 2004, bringing in $45m, while global dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular handset revenues reached $6.6m based on over 8,000 handsets sold (these dual mode devices only shipped in Q4). The 2004 figure signifies a very fledgling market, of course, and one that is lagging behind what forecasters had hoped when looking into their crystal balls in 2002-3.
But these figures should grow 'dramatically' by 2009 as more enterprises offer employees flexible mobile access over- different wireless networks. The report identifies the logistics and healthcare verticals as early adopters, because voice over-WLan already has some momentum.
Consumer uptake may be further behind but also has great potential, especially once handset costs come down. Adoption will be driven by broadband service providers offering VoIP services and wireless gateways bundled with a DSL or cable connection. Infonetics' Richard Webb commented: "The traditional model of time and distance-based pricing for voice calls will be eroded by VoIP, and as VoIP goes wireless this will present a challenge not only to fixed line operators, but to mobile operators as well."
According to the second report, from ON World, this effect is already being felt in the US telecoms industry, which will be "transformed" by three aspects of voice over WLan--the emergence of low powered single-chip radios with integrated protocol stacks; the adoption of standards such as SIP; and the promise of affordable flat rate roaming.
Finally, In-Stat is also seeing wireless VoIP starting to take off in the enterprise segment. Its recent survey of more than 300 midsize businesses and large enterprises found that 23% had already deployed wireless VoIP (wVoIP) in some manner Another 30% said that they were planning or evaluating some form of wVOIP in the next six to 12 months, The greatest area of interest by respondents was in having the ability to make phone cans from laptop or PDAs and take advantage of unified messaging.

Telephony solutions provider aql has released 2.5m UK geographic telephone numbers intended for use by broadband telephony subscribers.
The new range of geographic numbers covers more than 190 UK dialling codes and they will be leased on a flat rate scheme with pricing set at GBP2 per month.
Calls are routed via aql's telecomms platforms to any broadband phone or telephony software running on a PC or laptop, or alternatively they can be forwarded to existing landline or mobile numbers for an additional per-minute charge.
The release of the new numbers is expected to boost the uptake of VoIP services among small to medium-sized businesses, according to aql.

Australian wireless broadband provider Unwired has announced that it has cancelled its trial of a public VoIP trial that was due to take place in December 2004.
Unwired said that it was planning the trial in August 2004 but a spokesperson for the company said that it has decided to limit the trial to an internal test. Unwired was planning to begin a commercial VoIP service in early 2005 charging a flat fee of between AUD10 and UAD20 for unlimited local calls.
The company added that it was now considering its VoIP strategy and had not ruled out moving the entire service to a second party provider, but that it would not be abandoning the technology, reports AustraliaIT.