3. Interoperability

Compatibility between VoIP equipment from different vendors is a very important aspect to boost use of VoIP products. Without standardized quality of service mechanisms businesses would need to buy all equipment and QoS server from same manufacturer. The VoIP world seems to be divided between many vendors with reluctance to establish interoperability and some who are trying to be end-to-end supplier but at same time worried about interoperability. The protocols used in VoIP communication are still considered fairly complex in comparison to most of other protocols involved in Internet applications. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol - a signaling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, events notification, and instant messaging), that is regarded as simple and elegant other protocols, is still not efficient.

On bright side, however, SIP is approaching status as an IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard, after several years of work. With recent version, it has achieved a greater amount of stability and changes are becoming smaller and smaller. Phone switch companies such as Nortel have recently begun supporting SIP, and now manufacturers of handsets and related devices will soon ramp up their support. Motorola, Avaya, and Proxim have made collaboration on creation and deployment of IP telephony solutions that will deliver new extents of communication mobility and network connectivity.

With these three VoIP aspects covered, businesses will be able to maximize their investment by applying it as backbone of internal communication such as phone conversation, videoconferencing, instant messaging, faxing, etc. Another area that will widely make use of VoIP is call centers, in which Web contacts, virtual operations with outsourcers overseas, and remote sites, such as home agents, all could improve customer experience. New VoIP applications that we have not thought about may also come into existence as services generates more business and profits for companies.