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December 19, 2015

SIP Trunking Week in Review: SwitchRay, Polycom, PowerNet


By Steve Anderson
Contributing Writer

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Twas the week before Christmas, and all through session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking, creatures were stirring like no tomorrow and bringing back all kinds of news. So settle in, let visions of SIP dance in your heads, and let's run down the biggest events of the week with our Week in Review coverage!


First came word from SwitchRay, who joined up via license agreement with Smart Network Solutions (News - Alert) Communications Corporation. The new agreement calls for Smart Network Solutions to start offering SwitchRay's SR-S5000 Class 5 softswitch as part of its value-added reseller operations. SwitchRay will also be on hand at this year's ITEXPO (News - Alert) event, running January 25 to 28 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, showing off an array of new tools.

Next, Polycom stepped in with news it was set to deliver unified communications tools to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Polycom (News - Alert) would be a part of its Active Network Infrastructure (ANWI) project, providing the tools necessary to make NATO a more modern, powerful communications organization. Polycom joins several major names in working with NATO, including Lockheed Martin and Siemens (News - Alert) / Putman, providing infrastructure that may ultimately save lives.

Frost & Sullivan came in next, as we took a look at the European hosted Internet protocol (IP) telephony and the unified communications and collaboration (UCC) market in the region. Huge gains were afoot as the market was set to go from $3.32 billion in 2014 to $17.93 billion in 2021. The report also took a look at concerns in the market, as well as potential sources for gains. Security remains one of the biggest issues for potential users, as does reliability, but a growing mobile workforce means greater opportunity.

Then, we had a look at the notion of a permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) and what impact it might have on taxation. While some believe that such an act would keep sales taxes off the Internet, and others think it might shield revenue from taxation. The reality of the ITFA is much more complex, and fully understanding it will require the benefit of trained legal counsel. Some services are outright exempt from an ITFA's consideration, including VoIP, and the involvement of state and local governments will also play a part.

Finally, PowerNet stepped in with its network services manager Brent Baker and its director of marketing Krista Geiger. The duo offered insight into the market in 2015, and what was likely to follow in 2016, noting that competition in the UC space was only going to grow. Also noted was that Web-based real time communications (WebRTC) would likely live up to its hype, corporate awareness of threats has increased though action has been lesser hiked, and the company looks forward to exhibiting at the upcoming ITEXPO event.




Edited by Kyle Piscioniere
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