New VoIP registry could be 'revolutionary'
At a recent summit on the state of broadband in the UK, the country's competitiveness minister Stephen Timm admitted that an "archaic" telephony infrastructure had held development back.
In comparison to the likes of South Korea, where broadband speeds are up to 40 times faster, the UK's early industrialisation means that broadband is having to be run on much older technologies, though this situation is likely to change, just as much as a result of market forces and improved technology as government investment.
Though not to the same extent, the UK has also been lagging behind when it comes to the creation of a registry to integrate the various telephony networks and allow businesses to better communicate with each other using the latest online systems.
Already such a registry is in place in Germany, Australia, Ireland and the United States, though it has been announced this week that one is to be introduced into the UK sector at some point in 2008.
According to some experts, the new initiative could "revolutionise"; the voice over IP (VoIP) market across the UK, eliminating the need for calls to pass through the public telephone network and therefore significantly cutting costs for users of all sizes.
The Enum (tElephone Number Mapping) registry will collate VoIP numbers into a single directory and network which can then be used as a virtual switchboard to locate and dial organisations with the relevant technology in place.
While the initial stages will be focused solely on the UK's internet telephony networks, it is hoped that the system will do for VoIP numbers what the Domain Name System did for the web and internet addresses, allowing users to find out both a company's contact information and if a number is available.
"Those with VoIP servers will see the immediate gain" explained Jay Daley, the director of IT for Nominet, who will take responsibility for rolling out Enum.
"Many businesses have a high-speed internet connection and are already moving to internet telephony services. A large supermarket chain might request that all their suppliers use this system".
Once the new register goes live, users will be able to contact their VoIP providers to register their number, putting pressure on providers to ensure they have the measures in place to allow for this.
"Many people may move VoIP provider to get a company that does this properly" Mr Daley added.
"All these little islands of VoIP providers are going to have to be connected or risk losing their business to companies that are"
It is expected that the new system will go live in the Spring of 2008, though it is yet to be confirmed whether it will support mobile numbers - a move which would do even more to promote the implementation of VoIP among new customers.
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