Industry news

More VoIP services 'should be targeted at smaller European businesses'

An industry expert has said that there are not enough voice over internet protocol (VoIP) products aimed at small and medium-sized businesses in Europe.

Margaret Hopkins, an associate at research firm Analysys, recently produced a report entitled Success Factors for Hosted and Managed VoIP in Europe.

She explained there was an interest in VoIP services from many European businesses, but that the available products and services do not appeal to these companies.

"I did some research for my report, to see what [VoIP packages] were out there on offer for small companies - I had expected lots of simple boxes where you plugged in your phone and broadband, and off you went. And there weren't really many of those out there, just to buy," she explained.

"[Providers] weren't interested in the really small businesses at all. But I think [VoIP] is actually quite attractive for the very small businesses.

"It seems like such an obvious business opportunity, and I'm not quite sure if people have tried it and found the educational problems were too much of an uphill struggle."

Recently, a member of the Internet Telephony Services Providers' Association explained that European businesses would increasingly look to VoIP services as more bandwidth became affordable and available.