Weigh up the costs

So far, so good. But VoIP only works with broadband, so take-up and growth will largely depend on developments in broadband. And will investment in VoIP really save you money? Not necessarily, according to Richard Mahony, senior analyst at research company Ovum.

“There is growing demand for VoIP in the UK, but some of the packages available are still quite expensive. You have to be making a lot of international calls to others on the same service to really benefit,” says Mahony.

Bear in mind that the majority of savings are made from calls placed between in business’ various sites, so if your company operates from only one location, the returns are likely to be minimal.

Tim Webb, general manager at Toshiba Business Communications Division says that in some cases, investing in IP telephony systems may require a slightly larger initial capital expenditure, but this can often be more than offset against lower operational costs.

However, there are bandwidth issues to address that could affect the quality and reliability of the service. With VoIP, voice and data communication is carried on the same network, and this could provide a considerable strain on your system.

“If voice traffic is delayed, which is the most often due to network congestion, it can create a stuttering effect where syllables and words get broken up and become garbled. This clearly won’t be acceptable so it’s vitally important that your network’s performance is tested at peak times to ensure it can cope even during the busiest periods for network traffic,” advises Webb.

Rebecca Williams, EMEA solutions marketing manager at Nortel puts current problems down to existing local area networks (LAN). “It’s hindering companies deploying VoIP. Typically, with small and mid-size businesses it is being cobbled together on top of outdated systems.” Examining how your existing telephony system performs can help you identify the volume of calls and size of files your network will need to handle. Most VoIP suppliers will carry out what is known as a network health check.