Industry news

Council save £2 million with VoIP

A county council claims to have saved millions of pound by adopting Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones.

Fife council believes it has saved £2 million in call charges by installing the new technology.

The authority replaced 12,000 phones across its various sites.

Project manager Lee Parry says the change-over took less than 18 months and cost less than the council had budgeted for, with the difference being invested in the authority's physical infrastructure.

"The converged network will give us more cost effective communications over the system's lifetime," he explains.

He says: "This is about more than just saving money – it's about delivering best value in every sense."

The council reports using VoIP minimised the disruption after an office fire, as people's phone numbers "followed" them when they were working at a different site.

Earlier this month, Intel announced it was producing motherboards that wake from sleep mode when an incoming VoIP call is detected.

The company believes this will increase consumer uptake.