GoTo Connect Standard looks a great choice for SMBs seeking a unified communications solution, as it offers a wealth of enterprise-class features. Cloud-hosted VoIP services, messaging, meetings, chat and HD videoconferencing (VC) are all included and easily managed from a single admin web portal.

Choices are simplified, with Connect being offered in Basic and Standard plans, with the latter on test and costing £21 per user per month. This enables every call feature Connect has to offer, along with free international calls to over 50 countries and unlimited auto-attendants, dial plans, ring groups, call queues and multiple office locations.

GoTo Connect Standard review: Setup

The admin portal provides one space to access all your GoTo products, and selecting the Connect option took us straight to its main console. From here, you can ask to port over existing numbers, order new ones, view a system health page, access reports, load activity audit logs and enable integrations with Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Salesforce, Chrome and GoTo's own Clio call-tracking and billing service.

We initially hit a glitch as the five local phone numbers we had ordered wouldn't accept incoming calls. GoTo's helpful support advised us that they'd identified an issue with the carrier, and to avoid delaying our testing they dished up five more, which worked fine.

Onboarding users is a simple process, although it's worth creating custom templates first as these combine groups of settings that determine what voice call, webinar and meeting functions they're allowed to access. Then you can enter your users' names and email addresses, assign extension numbers, apply templates and decide if they are members, admins or super admins.

Once users have set up their account from the invitation email they'll find the Connect Windows and macOS desktop apps and web portals are virtually identical, so they can stay connected no matter where they are. A side menu provides swift access to all features so users can easily make and receive calls, view a contact list, check their colleagues' presence status and hover the mouse pointer over each one to see whether they're available or busy.

Choose a contact and, from the appropriate pane, you can call them using their extension or main work number, send a message or request a VC meeting. GoTo has a lot of experience with meetings and VC services, and this shines through as Connect is packed with great features.

Users can create scheduled and instant VC meetings from their app or web portal, email invitations, set up personal meeting rooms and add co-organisers. Other useful meeting features include end-to-end encryption and breakout rooms for splitting meeting participants into smaller groups for side discussions.

Call-handling features are outstanding. Multiple dial plans can be easily built from the admin portal using its editor tool; this provides a library of nodes that are dragged into the main window and placed in a variety of sequences to create custom services to callers. Even better, the new Insights feature allows you to view an active dial plan and see how it is performing in real-time.

Call-recording options are equally impressive. You can choose to record inbound and/or outbound calls and use the free system storage assigned to your account. This provides a 13-month retention period but, if you need to keep them for longer, Connect will work happily with your own Amazon S3 cloud storage.

GoTo Connect is ideal for larger businesses that need a cloud-hosted communications solution with great voice and video services. It's easy to deploy, the desktop and mobile apps are well designed and it includes call-recording services as standard.

From 2025, Openreach will switch off its analogue public switched telephone network (PSTN) infrastructure, with every phone line in the UK migrating to the digital successor. Organisations of all sizes across the UK will need to prepare for this migration and ensure they’ve upgraded their communications systems to Internet Protocol (IP), or voice over IP (VoIP), technologies as part of a comprehensive digitisation initiative.

Although 2025 might seem a fair distance away, businesses won’t be able to purchase traditional landline contracts nor PSTN-enabled devices – like legacy phones or fax machines – from September 2023. Making such significant changes on a short timescale might seem daunting, but the UK is just one of many countries making the switch. In some pockets around the world, the migration has already been completed. Indeed, there’s a lot UK businesses can learn from their neighbours to ensure the digital switchover goes without a hitch.

The countries ahead of the curve

The digital switchover is happening across the world at a rapid pace. This is because the analogue network is losing relevance, and the demands of modern businesses require state-of-the-art infrastructure. Switching over to an IP communications system can, for example, give businesses the flexibility to issue devices to hybrid workers, and allow businesses to connect applications with collaboration and videoconferencing facilities, with the cloud reinforcing everything. This is why countries in all corners of the globe have embarked on this transition.

The Netherlands has already completed the switchover, as has Estonia, which is known for staying ahead of the technological curve. In 2017, Estonia’s incumbent infrastructure company Telia switched off its copper-based network following a three-year process, with 300 phone stations replaced with VoIP phone stations, and 130 smaller stations closed permanently. The Netherlands, which began the process in 2006, finally completed its migration in 2021.

A host of other European countries have also started this process. Spain had switched over 80% of its copper networks to the digital successor by 2020, with Portugal completing 60%, according to Wik Consult. This is in addition to the likes of France, Poland and Sweden, which are well on their way to making the switch. In Asia, Singapore’s infrastructure company, Singtel, completely switched off its copper network in 2020, while Japan aims to do so by 2024. Openreach in the UK, by contrast, only began terminating copper wire-based PSTN in 2020, with 2% switched over at the time.

Learning the lessons of PSTN switchover

Telenor, in Norway, learned during its copper network switch-off that constant engagement with stakeholders was crucial, according to management consultancy Arthur Little. While some businesses questioned the value of the change, this enforced digital transformation, strong communications ultimately sold the manifold benefits of IP systems. This won’t be a problem in the UK, at least, with BT already putting a comprehensive range of IP products and services in place that aim to make the migration frictionless, while letting organisations unlock the full capabilities of digital systems.

Italy’s Telecom Italia, meanwhile, has learned that cooperation with its main competitor was paramount. Liaising with investors, too, helped to carve up the market in such a way that its failing migration programme, first announced in 2017, was able to restart with a new framework and impetus in 2021.

Jersey Telecom was also among the first operators to switch off its copper networks, starting its radical transformation project in 2012 and completing the migration away from the final elements of copper lines by the end of 2019. Its key learnings include the importance of giving plenty of notice and regular communication to organisations everywhere. The copper switchover was also handled in conjunction with migration to full-fibre broadband, which gave businesses a boost and a reason to attract investment and staff.

How UK organisations can set an example

Despite progress moving at different rates globally, there are parallels that can be drawn between different countries. To begin with, the PSTN switchover usually coincides with the rollout of full-fibre broadband, as was the case in Jersey. Regions that have completed the switch early have therefore been able to offer superior services. The UK, by contrast, has been lagging behind on both fronts. Early buy-in to the PSTN switch, however, means more time to plan for how to make the most of not just IP communications, but the inevitable step up to full-fibre broadband, and how this can fuel wider digital transformation efforts.

Once these countries have overcome the respective regulatory hurdles, which vary between regulatory regimes, there are a number of common painpoints that need addressing. First, there are the migration constraints, with significant levels of planning, communication and logistics to overcome in any large-scale project such as this. For businesses, close coordination is required between IT teams and stakeholders – ranging from employees to external suppliers – to ensure upgrading devices and workflows take into account the implications for all parties.

Ramping up communications around the switch to IP-based systems both internally and among suppliers and customers, can help businesses gain a competitive advantage, too. Just as some countries have been able to benefit reputationally from making the switch early, so organisations in the UK can earn a reputational boost for doing the same. Businesses actively exploring their options also have a plethora of options to choose from that are already on the market, including BT’s range of IP-compatible hardware as well as platforms like BT Cloud Work. Organisations in the UK are spoilt for choice and can begin selling the benefits of the technology to staff as well as partners once their plans are set in motion. This not only lets organisations set an example within their own circles but among competitors and investors too.

The UK hasn’t been as quick to the punch as neighbouring countries in leading the migration away from PSTN and towards modern digital infrastructure. But the advantage has been the option to follow international counterparts and take into account their successes and challenges. By examining these examples, the business landscape as a whole can come to learn the full implications of the PSTN switch-off, so UK PLC can successfully see off any hurdles and maximise the benefits of digital infrastructure in 2025 and beyond.

For over a century, phone calls in the UK have been handled by the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This is the umbrella term for the complex infrastructure of telephone lines, satellite links, and switching centres which connect one caller to another when a specific phone number is entered.

But internet calls, video conferencing, and online collaborative tools have far exceeded the capabilities of PSTN, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

By the end of 2025 PSTN will be switched off across the United Kingdom, ushering in a new era of telecoms. Digital services will take its place, namely internet protocol (IP) or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone systems through which users can make calls via broadband or mobile data.

Network operators such as BT are already helping businesses to make the switch, migrating customers onto modern IP phone systems that run on fibre in place of the outdated copper wires that PSTN uses.

Most businesses pay for both phone service and internet access - switching to IP calling brings both under the same roof for lower overall cost, as well as a host of other benefits including high-quality video conferencing and improved accessibility.

Openreach is dedicated to this hard and fast deadline, and has been preparing for the switch off since 2016. In the public sector, a great deal of systems including rail and motorway infrastructure will need to be updated to function after the PSTN switch off and this work is underway. But the private sector needs to take the initiative to adopt IP services now instead of down the line.

2025 may feel like it’s a way off in the future, but in reality it’s under two years away. This is why it’s absolutely crucial that businesses that have not already switched to IP telephony or VoIP make a start on it now; the sooner you adopt the new technology, the sooner your business can benefit from IP calls.

How can my business prepare?

Businesses that don’t adopt cloud phone systems before the PSTN switch off will face more problems than just not being able to make calls. Many alarm systems are also connected to a company’s phone lines, and if these are still operating on legacy hardware by the time the switch off comes they will be rendered inoperable.

Additionally, lift alarms and other points of contact in an emergency often run on PSTN, and will need to be upgraded before 2025.

Communication providers are aware of how many organisations use PSTN lines, but control over the hardware that will need to be swapped out or updated before the deadline is in the hands of those customers. So, the better stock a company takes in advance, the easier its IP transformation will be.

For some small businesses, this may mean buying new dedicated handsets and IT personnel familiarising themselves with their phone service dashboard.

Larger businesses, on the other hand, may need to retire large amounts of outdated equipment, and draw up strategies for new opportunities offered by IP including call analytics and customisable hold messages. This will require extensive planning, so should be completed sooner rather than later to prevent a stressful and costly transformation closer to the deadline. With BT’s Professional Services, they will plan and implement the full migration from the discovery phase to final on-site testing.

How can I adopt these services by 2025?

BT is ready right now to help firms make the transition as smoothly as possible, whether it involves swapping old handsets for new ones all at once, or through a phased approach that sees critical systems retired and upgraded one by one.

It can handle the installation of new hardware such as IP phones, as well as ongoing maintenance to ensure that the transformation is as simple as plug and play for your company. Swapping in IP phone services needn’t be a long or painful process, and businesses don’t even need to change their phone number or existing settings, such as hold recordings.

Once a business has adopted IP telephony, it only pays for what it needs and can easily scale its systems up or down at any time. Between now and 2025, a company may rapidly expand, move location, or enter a new market and seek stats on how its new customers respond to its calls. On a legacy phone system, this would mean added hardware and maintenance costs, limitations on where it can move, and complicated oversight to draw statistical insight from calls.

But through services like BT Cloud Work, all this and more would be at the business’ disposal at no added cost. PSTN isn’t just an outdated standard that will be retired – it’s holding firms back from their full, flexible potential.

Adopting IP calling is very much part of the wider digital transformation that businesses around the country are undergoing. Just like the most intense period of the pandemic saw widespread digital transformation in the adoption of hybrid work suites and cloud collaboration software by many businesses, the time between now and 31 December 2025 will be a crucial proving ground for the continued operations of all companies.

Another reason businesses might choose to move to IP telephony as soon as possible is to give their employees more time to familiarise themselves with the new systems.

BT can also help here, with its comprehensive range of courses that cover all the features of its Cloud Work service. These include basics such as answering calls on the go and call forwarding through cloud routing, to core features and admin portals, call analytics, and integration with third-party APIs.

In time between now and 31 December 2025, companies need to take a firm grasp of IP telephony as a part of their digital transformation. By accepting the help available from BT your business can move away from PSTN without disrupting their systems, but this journey must be embarked on as soon as possible to ensure you make the most of it.

The UK’s phone network has been gradually upgraded over the years, but many businesses still rely on the ageing, analogue, public switched telephone network (PSTN) for their phone operations. By 2025, this will be replaced by digital phone services, more technically known as internet protocol (IP) or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) which enable phone calls to be carried out over the internet.

This means that businesses have until the end of 2025 to switch to IP calling, or see their phone systems become obsolete and unsupported.

IP phone services operate using packet switching. This means when you speak into an IP phone, your voice is compressed into a digital signal, which is broken up into packets that are sent to your internet router. These packets are then sent over the internet via the most efficient path to the person on the other end of the line.

The switch from PSTN to IP is more than just a change in standard that is necessary to keep the phones on. It’s a major move in digital transformation that brings business phone networks to the cloud, and will allow businesses to make use of all of the flexibility and insight that comes with it.

Many businesses have already embraced this new way of making calls, but those who haven't yet made the switch may wonder what benefits IP can offer.

Benefits of IP

More effective security solutions

Many businesses use their phone lines for more purposes than calls, with alarm systems being a notable example. When the PSTN switch-off happens in 2025, firms that rely on their legacy security systems could be left unprotected.

Luckily, IP is not only capable of fulfilling the same roles as the PSTN with regards to alarm systems — it’s also a marked improvement. Because PSTN relies on establishing a direct connection via a copper phone line, alarms connected to the PSTN have to first phone an alarm monitoring centre when tripped, which can lead to a delayed response by private security or emergency services. In contrast, IP is capable of establishing a connection in seconds over the internet, and can simultaneously notify security personnel via notifications to their handsets.

Scalability without added installation cost

Because IP is hosted in the cloud, it’s also a flexible and scalable solution. If you’re looking to supply your startup with a phone system this is ideal, as you can start with a small number of phones connected to the network and expand this as your business grows without the need for additional connections to be installed.

BT offers a range of packages to suit the needs of your business, covering a number of users on your phone system, the bandwidth, and extra features — ensuring that you only pay what you need while always having the option of expansion at hand.

Powerful integration

As IP calls are routed over the cloud, those on the call can connect in a number of ways. Employees could dial in on an IP phone or their own smartphone, but also through their laptop, desktop, or tablet. This means that calls can be both audio and video.

Additionally, BT has worked with Cisco to integrate the latter’s Webex package into its digital phone service offering, bringing high quality video with automatic transcription to conference calls. Webex also allows users to connect their calls to a number of productivity apps such as Microsoft Teams.

If you’re a business based in a number of locations, video conferencing can help your team to feel connected, heard, and seen. With IP calling, employees can engage with meetings and client calls in the way that best fits the situation.

Flexible costs for each business

Whenever there is a change to a new way of working, business leaders will question whether the cost of switching outweighs the benefits. With IP calls, plans can cost as little as half as much from day one as they run over an internet connection, which the vast majority of businesses already have. All you need to buy is the phones themselves.

In addition, IP services receive regular updates free of charge, a far cry from the slow and expensive maintenance cycles that businesses have endured with PSTN phone systems for decades.

A shared phone system for remote work

Because IP phone services work over the cloud, businesses are no longer limited by physical restrictions for their phone systems. Remote working employees can be routed into the shared business network to ensure that they’re just as productive in their home office as they are at their desks.

Calls can even be automatically switched from an office handset to an employee’s business smartphone when they step off the premises, ensuring that businesses can continue to offer great customer service without being tethered to just one site at a time.

Detailed call analytics

Another benefit of IP is the analytical insight that one can gather from calls made through the cloud. Businesses with IP phone systems can leverage data on calls made and received, and look into detailed trends on both customer and team metrics. This could be ideal for a company launching a new marketing drive via phone, providing easy to access data on how long customers stay on the phone on average and what times of day produce the best engagement.

On a larger scale, it can benefit businesses running call centres and IT support hotlines, with real-time information on incoming calls allowing managers to run their department efficiently and ensure customers are receiving the best phone service possible.

Improved calls and added value

Unlike PSTN, IP converts a user's voice into data which is broken up into separate packets and sent using the internet. With modern high-speed internet, this process allows for high-definition voice calls, as well as video calls over the same network.

It’s also a more efficient system than PSTN calls, because the line isn’t being maintained regardless of the signals being sent. This means that if you’re on a call but no one is speaking, data packets aren’t constantly being sent back and forth.

With IP phone services, value added features such as caller ID, call forwarding, and hold music are also bundled in at no extra cost. As the service is run over the internet, business leaders can also easily alter their settings on call routes and even granular details such as specific hold messages and music from a centralised dashboard. It’s these small details, traditionally difficult to keep up-to-date and functional, that become even easier with IP calls.

Businesses that want to host their own IP PBX should put 3CX’s Phone System 18 at the top of their list: it offers a stunning range of call-handling features at affordable prices. Licensing is based on the number of simultaneous calls, with a 16SC licence for the Enterprise version on review sufficient for up to 50 users, and costing £615 per year.

Phone System Enterprise enables everything 3CX has to offer, including web conferencing, call queues, call reports, recording services and integration with Facebook, WordPress and Microsoft 365, plus CRM and helpdesk solutions such as Salesforce and Zendesk. All three editions offer a 4SC version, which is free for the first year, with a Standard 4SC licence free forever.

On-premises platform support is outstanding. We virtualised 3CX on a Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V host; other options include Linux, VMware, KVM and Raspberry Pi, or you can cloud-host it on Google Cloud, Amazon or Microsoft Azure. 3CX’s own cloud- hosting service supports 32SC licences (120 users) and looks great value: the first year is free for all versions, and an Enterprise 16SC licence costs £300 for subsequent years.

On-premises installation is aided by a wizard that guided us through each step. To allow remote workers to access the system, we followed the 3CX online tutorial to create forwarding rules for SIP and RTP port ranges on our firewall and watched the integral firewall test give us a green light.

You’ll need to buy an SIP trunk separately; we used the excellent VoIP Unlimited service. The 3CX web portal did flag it as unsupported (as it does with many others), but it worked perfectly during testing.

Adding new users is a breeze. An email is sent to each one with details of their extension, a PIN number for voicemail, web links to their personal portal and a QR code to register the free iOS and Android mobile apps. Dishing up hardware phones is even easier: 3CX discovered our Yealink handsets when they came online, updated their firmware and pushed the designated user profile to them.

Outbound rules control outgoing calls, and you can assign up to five different SIP trunks as backups if the main one is unavailable. The phone numbers assigned to your SIP trunk are handed to each extension using inbound rules, and assigning one to the digital receptionist presents callers with custom messages and a menu of up to ten options. Call queues and ring groups ensure calls are never missed, and users can have incoming calls redirected to them when they’re at home.

Backup services are provided and can be run daily or weekly to secure the system configuration, call records and voicemail. We made good use of this when we tested migration from on-premises to 3CX cloud hosting. We selected our subscription from the customer portal, chose the “switch to hosted” option and pointed it at the latest backup, after which it took 15 minutes to load the new cloud instance. After importing our user extension list, we loaded the free Windows session border controller utility to keep our handsets working. The whole process took an hour.

3CX’s Phone System 18 is perfect for SMBs that want a flexible VoIP system they can manage themselves. Along with easy on-premises and cloud deployments, it provides a remarkable range of call-handling features and can’t be beaten for value.

BT Wholesale has announced the launch of WHC Teams Direct Connect, which will give businesses the ability to access external calling for Microsoft Teams using the firm’s cloud-based phone solution, Wholesale Hosted Communications (WHC).

Built for the channel market, BT says the solution is quick and easy to deploy and doesn’t require specialist IT support.

Demand for collaboration software has rocketed in recent years, fuelled by the widespread boom in hybrid working. Microsoft Teams has the biggest share of this market currently, with approximately 6.75 million users in the UK – and that figure has been predicted to rise to 10 million by 2023.

With WHC Teams Direct Connect, users can now leverage hosted PBX or hosted SIP Trunking directly from within Teams, enabling high-quality digital phone calls across all devices, as well as the usual benefits of WHC such as call recording and analytics, BT said.

“Bringing Microsoft Teams into our WHC portfolio was a natural next step for our partners and their customers,” explained BT Wholesale channel director Gavin Jones. “At BT Wholesale we want to ensure our propositions are adding the best value.”

With WHC Teams Direct Connect, partners can mix and match hosted PBX, SIP trunking, and Teams to build solutions that fit their customers needs, with ordering and deployment that doesn’t require specialist IT support or long wait times.

Additionally, BT says the solution offers competitive pricing without requiring end customers to invest in IT development or training.

Ultimately, that means customers can take advantage of improved collaboration in this era of hybrid working. Users can have the same number anywhere, on any device, alongside quick service set-up.

The solution is also natively connected to BT’s WHC automated ordering journey, allowing end users to be added in real time and making calls in a matter of minutes, the company added.

“Microsoft Teams is a great platform that many businesses rely on, but we wanted to take our support further by adding the extra functionality of allowing phone calls,” Jones continued.

“This is a simple and cost-effective way to get calls in Teams so that we can deliver the greatest benefits to our partners and their customers.”

Ericsson has said it has entered into an agreement to buy cloud-based communications provider Vonage for $6.2 billion (£4.6 billion) in cash.

Ericsson is set to pay $21 (£15.62) for each outstanding Vonage share in what is considered the Swedish telecom giant’s largest disclosed acquisition to date, as it continues to expand its product portfolio.

The deal is expected to be finalised in the first half of 2022, and has received unanimous approval across Vonage’s board. Vonage is expected to continue to operate under its existing name as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ericsson.

Börje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson, said that Vonage will provide a platform to assist Ericsson’s business customers in monetising network investments. Meanwhile, the New Jersey-based company’s more than one million registered developers will receive access to 4G and 5G network APIs, allowing it to “develop new innovative global offerings”.

“Communication Service Providers will be able to better monetize their investments in network infrastructure by creating new API driven revenues. Finally, businesses will benefit from the 5G performance, impacting operational performance, and share in new value coming from applications on top of the network.” he said in a company announcement.

Founded in 2001, Vonage employs more than 2,000 employees throughout the US, Europe and Asia. The company serves over 100,000 businesses worldwide across sectors such as healthcare, finance, education and transportation.

Commenting on the acquisition, Vonage CEO Rory Read said that both companies “have a shared ambition to accelerate [their] long-term growth strategy”.

“The convergence of the internet, mobility, the cloud and powerful 5G networks are forming the digital transformation and intelligent communications wave, which is driving a secular change in the way businesses operate. The combination of our two companies offers exciting opportunities for customers, partners, developers and team members to capture this next wave,” he added.

The news comes a year after Ericsson announced the acquisition of WAN 4G and 5G solutions provider Cradlepoint for an enterprise value of $1.1 billion (£850 million). The company is a fully-owned subsidiary of Ericsson, yet has retained its original employees and continues to operate from its Idaho headquarters under its existing brand.

Welcome to IT Pro's News in Review, a weekly bite-sized bulletin of the top tech stories of the week, for the week ending 15 October, 2021.

This week:

• Microsoft resellers warned of Nobelium attacks on IT supply chain
• UK spy agencies supercharge espionage efforts with AWS data deal
• DDoS attacks are crippling UK VoIP operators

You can find more videos like this in our video library and even more on our YouTube channel. Let us know what you think of this week's video – you can also find us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Several Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers in the UK have been subjected to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks resulting in numerous outages affecting the public and private sector.

The UK Comms Council confirmed on Tuesday that several of its members and a number of international providers, including some in North America, have been fielding attacks for the past four weeks.

It also said the attacks appear to be "part of a coordinated extortion-focused international campaign by professional cyber criminals", as one affected vendor, Voip Unlimited, previously suggested the evidence pointed to REvil, the infamous Russian-based ransomware group.

The UK Comms Council, which is tasked with lobbying on behalf of the industry and developing best practices to increase industry-wide standards, among other duties, has offered very little details on the attacks and the affected parties.

However, it has confirmed its members supply VoIP services to the likes of the police, NHS, and other public services, adding that "attacks on our members are attacks on the foundations of UK infrastructure".

"We are liaising closely with the UK Government, National Cyber Security Centre, Ofcom & international agencies to share information and details about the nature of the attacks in the expectation of halting this criminal activity as quickly as possible," said the UK Comms Council in a statement.

"We are confident that, with a joined-up Government-led initiative, this damaging criminal activity can be halted.“

Speaking to IT Pro, neither the UK Comms Council or National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) were able to comment on specific vendors that may or may not be affected by the coordinated DDoS attacks, but there are a number of cases in the public domain which suggest they could be linked with the attacks referenced by the council.

London-based Voipfone is still experiencing service disruptions, according to its status page. As of Wednesday morning, the company said: "We continue to work on addressing the issues effecting our network. A level of service has been restored, but there may still be a risk of further disruption. We will continue to update as the incident progresses".

Like Voip Unlimited, Voipfone also suggested the attack appeared to be conducted from "overseas criminals" in a Monday update.

Private sector customers have been complaining on social media about the frequency of outages at the firm, seeking compensation.

Speaking on who may be behind the attacks, Pascal Geenens, director of threat intelligence at Radware said: "In September, and still ongoing into October, an actor or group posing as REvil was sending out ransom demands to VoIP providers in the UK and Canada. In the case of the Canadian VoIP provider Voip.ms, the actors went public and leveraged Twitter to get word out of their threats and why Voip.ms was experiencing service disruptions.

"The tactic of disclosing victims publicly is one that is used by ransomware operators to increase the pressure on its victims. It is one thing to be under attack and trying to fend it off, it is another to fight off the attack while the whole world and all your customers are watching. And customers have their own opinions, so companies will vouch to pay the criminals to make it stop and restore the service."

The NCSC was unable to confirm the scale of the attacks and whether affected operators were still under attack. But it did say it was working with partners to support those who needed it.

"Denial-of-service attacks are a common threat, and we urge all organisations to follow our guidance on how to prepare for and deal with them," it said in a statement to IT Pro.

Switching VoIP providers seems like something that would be complicated and disruptive, but Voip Unlimited’s hosted Voip Exchange service provides a simple onboarding process, along with a friendly cloud management portal and great value.

There’s a wide variety of plans to choose from, with the basic pay-as-you-go option starting at £8.50 per user per month. That includes all of the call-handling features - apart from voice recording, which will cost you an extra £1 per month. Monthly call packages start at £3.50 per user, which covers up to 3,000 minutes of calls to landlines and mobiles.

Unusually, Voip Exchange also offers a low-cost mobile-only licence, for homeworkers and travellers who don’t need handsets and are happy to rely on mobile apps and softphones. Individually, the Android, iOS, Windows and macOS apps each cost £3.50 per user per month, but a single monthly payment of £7.50 allows up to four to be used per licence.

Installation is nothing if not swift: a technician set up our portal with a base set of users, phone numbers and extensions already configured. There’s a range of Snom and Yealink handsets to choose from; we selected Yealink T58S and T31G models, and again when these arrived they were already set up on our account.

A wizard helps create new users; you can decide which sites and departments each one is a member of, assign them a direct dial-in number and choose what features they can access. If you allocate a handset to a user, it’s automatically provisioned and ready to use in one minute.

Available mobile licences are listed in the same section of the portal, and when you assign one of these to a user, it generates a unique login name and prompts you to create a strong password. The user can download the app from their personal portal, enter these details and immediately start making calls.

Voip Exchange’s call-handling services are extensive. Users can record custom voice messages from their personal cloud portal, add an email address for voicemail to be sent to and set up call forwarding to another number of their choice. If permitted, they can twin their main number with another so that it also rings for incoming calls, and choose whether to present their direct number to inbound callers.

You can also combine multiple users into a hunt group, so that incoming calls to a particular number will ring all phones together – or you can use round-robin mode to ring around each one in order. If no one’s picked up after a configurable time-out period, unanswered calls can be forwarded to a different user, another hunt group, an external number or a voice receptionist.

Videoconferencing meetings can only be created by users who have been assigned admin or manager roles; others can join by pasting the link shown in their personal portal into a browser. The mobile apps and softphones don’t currently support video calls, but Voip Unlimited expects to have this feature added soon.

On that note, the mobile apps have already seen some big improvements lately. Previously, Voip Unlimited provided customised versions of Zoiper, but the latest versions are based on the CounterPath Bria app instead. These offer more features than Zoiper, and bring the mobile experience more into line with the Windows and macOS softphones, which are also based on Bria.

Voip Exchange provides an easily managed cloud-hosted VoIP solution with a great set of call-management features. All of the deployment work is done for you, the cloud portal is simple to use and the mobile licence is ideal for the significant contingent of homeworkers.

Any business looking for an on-premises IP PBX needs to check out 3CX’s Phone System. It provides a remarkable range of features and terrific platform support, yet it’s very affordable.

There’s a variety of packages on offer, but all of them support an unlimited number of extensions and include all mobile apps. In fact, the standard service is free for the first year, which should give you more than ample opportunity to try it out.

After that, licensing is based on the number of simultaneous calls you want supported. Small businesses may get by with the free-forever 8SC version, which, as the name hints, handles up to eight calls at once; for mid-sized offices, the 16SC Pro package costs £554 per year. It’s recommended for up to 50 users, although that’s just a guideline.

All of the tiers provide a solid set of call-handling features, including inbound and outbound rules, call parking and videoconferencing. A digital receptionist presents custom messages and menus to ensure that callers reach the right person, while homeworkers can easily redirect calls to their mobiles. Meanwhile, web conferencing comes as standard these days.

If you pay for a Pro or Enterprise licence, you get additional access to call queues, call reports and recording services. There’s also tight integration with Microsoft 365, and a range of CRM and help desk solutions such as Salesforce and Zendesk.

Naturally, you’ll need to provide your own server hardware and handsets, and you’ll also need a SIP trunk. 3CX supports a huge range of providers: we used GoTrunk and dished out Yealink T58A handsets to our users.

As for the server, you have plenty of options – you can actually install Phone System on a Raspberry Pi if you wish. It will also run on a regular Windows or Linux server, or if you prefer the virtual approach you can run it in a VMware, Hyper-V or KVM host. You can even run it in the cloud, on Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and AWS – or take it easy and let 3CX host it for you. We chose to virtualise the system on a Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V host; the process wasn’t exactly speedy, but we followed the smart wizard and had everything up and running in under an hour.

Part of this involved setting up forwarding rules on our firewall, to allow remote extensions and mobile apps to connect to the PBX. This may sound complicated, but 3CX made it easy with detailed online tutorials and a helpful firewall checker tool.

Provisioning our Yealink phones was even easier, as the 3CX software spotted them as soon as they came online. All we had to do was assign extensions; 3CX then updated their firmware and they were ready for our users.

As you configure your users, each one receives an email advising them of their extension details, along with a PIN for voicemail access. For anyone who won’t be solely using a desktop phone, there’s a URL for accessing the web client, download links for the Windows softphone app and Chrome browser extension, and a QR code that can be used to instantly register the mobile app. The setup wizard creates an external fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and SSL certificate to enable remote users to connect securely over the internet.

3CX Phone System 16 is a top choice for SMBs that want to host an on-premises IP PBX. It’s a flexible and affordable solution that’s packed with call-handling features. It’s a good bet for the future too: a major OS upgrade is already being prepared for release, bringing improved performance and even more remote-working features.

Viasat, a global communications company based out of Carlsbad, California, announced its new Viasat Business Voice satellite-based voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone service today.

This cloud-based service uses Viasat’s network of satellites to provide high-speed and high-quality internet phone service. The company is targeting small and medium businesses that have, thus far, relied on landlines and cellular services.

"Businesses like restaurants, boutiques, professional and personal services, public administration, construction and more no longer need to settle for traditional, expensive landline phone service or unreliable cell coverage to scale business communications," said Cody Catalena, vice president and general manager, global business solutions, Viasat.

An analysis of VoIP phone service by FinancesOnline.com showed that moving from a traditional landline phone service to VoIP can save a business as much as 75% on their communications costs. While the hardware businesses need to switch over to a VoIP can be costly, it’s likely to pay off in the long run.

Viasat Business Voice a variety of features including:

• Up to four lines of voice, including one desktop phone for each line
• A mobile-dialing app with follow-me capabilities that allows users to answer calls made to their business phone number on any cell phone when they’re away from the office
• Network prioritization for reliable and clear connections
• Unlimited local calling in the U.S., Mexico and Canada

Number portability

• Traditional business phone features such as three-way calling, call transfer, call forwarding, call waiting, directory listing, caller ID, voicemail and do-not-disturb.

Businesses can learn more at the Viasat Business Voice homepage.

When everything goes smoothly, making business calls seems like the most mundane thing in the world. But when things go wrong, from hardware issues to call drops to security breaches, this can affect your team’s ability to do their jobs and compromise your business.

If your current phone system isn’t working for you, it’s time to switch to something reliable, high-quality, simple, and flexible. This whitepaper breaks down the steps to choosing a phone system and key security concerns you must consider.

Download this guide from Aircall to start searching for your ideal phone system and set it up as efficiently as possible.

Fill out the form below to access the free resource.

​Traditional telephony is on its way out. It’s expensive, inflexible and ties you into a contract that might run for far longer than you want or need. Many people no longer have landlines at home and certainly most locations aren’t wired up like they used to be. Getting an engineer to come and put a line put back in is a notoriously tedious process that can take days if not weeks. With most people turning to digital alternatives in their private lives, the business case for traditional telephony is increasingly difficult to make.

The shift to digital alternatives makes Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) a logical choice. It’s far more versatile than traditional services, and you can get set up in a fraction of the time by cutting out service providers and old-school telephony hardware. Those interested in switching to VoIP will also be heartened to learn that it isn’t only a simple process, but also offers cost savings that make it affordable for even the smallest business.

With the transition to remote-working models that has affected many organisations in 2020, VoIP is a great way for keeping employees in touch with each other as well as your customers, clients, collaborators and other stakeholders – and one that offers benefits that may not have occurred to you.

VoIP on a budget: The VoIP advantage

First of all, you’ll need to establish a reliable internet connection to build a VoIP system. This doesn’t mean you’ll need a superfast line, however, with Vonage, a leading VoIP provider, suggesting that an hour-long call uses less bandwidth than general web browsing.

You’ll only need to ensure that your connection is stable enough to keep you online at all times. If you feel, therefore, that you’re able to double the size of your team without needing to upgrade your broadband package, it means your infrastructure is capable of providing everyone with a VoIP system.

In practice, however, there are several factors that go into how much bandwidth you might need, including the number of calls you’d expect your workforce to make at once. Variables such as compression, encryption, protocol, and packet size also play a role. The best thing to do would be to chat with several vendors to establish how they see your current setup coping with a fully-fledged VoIP system. Ideally, you can ask them to perform a survey of your infrastructure and determine how sustainable your connection may be.

Once you’ve gathered the most important pieces of information, you can make efforts to determine what exactly you’ll be needing. You’ll need to add together headers and voice payload size, first of all, to work out the total packet size. Next, divide the codec bitrate by the voice payload size to work out your packets per second (PPS) rate. Finally, multiple these two figures together to work out the bandwidth needed for each call. You can then, of course, multiply this by how many calls you’d expect to be running simultaneously to work out the total approximate bandwidth you require.

You also want to ensure that everyday email and internet services don’t interfere with your VoIP calls. The ideal solution is to use a separate, dedicated internet line for voice services, but if that’s beyond your means then traffic prioritisation is the order of the day. BT Smart Hub hardware will automatically prioritise VoIP data to help avoid break-ups; most routers can do the same, but there’s no guarantee yours will have been set up with VoIP in mind, so check its quality of service (QoS) settings and give priority to voice traffic if possible. This simple change can make the difference between sounding like a professional enterprise and coming across as a two-bit backroom operation.

VoIP on a budget: VoIP hardware

There are two sides to VoIP: the back-end service and the physical hardware that you talk into. Most VoIP providers will support a wide range of headsets and desk phones, and setting up your VoIP hardware is usually just a case of entering the username and password, along with the connection details supplied by your provider. To make things as easy as possible, many providers run auto-configuring servers, which the hardware can interrogate to retrieve the appropriate settings.

Some of the desk phone options are impressively powerful. For example, the £70 Cisco SPA303G can handle three separate VoIP accounts at once, while Yealink’s pricier T48S features a 7in touchscreen and support for 16 VoIP lines, 29 touch keys for memory dialling and the option to expand its features with add-on modules.

If you’re looking to keep costs down, it’s worth exploring the world of certified refurbished hardware; there’s a healthy supply of VoIP handsets available through Amazon Renewed, or you could eschew physical hardware altogether and use an app such as Zoiper, which emulates VoIP hardware, allowing you to talk over your VoIP network just as if you were making a regular call. The app is also available for Windows, Mac and Linux, so staff can plug a cheap headset into their computer and chat away.

VoIP on a budget: Unexpected benefits

One strength of VoIP is that it allows staff to make and receive calls from wherever they happen to be – whether that’s the office, home or even in the car. It also allows you to mask your real business location, should you so wish, as most VoIP providers can offer numbers within any UK area code, and even overseas locations. This can be a boon for small businesses that want to appear larger or more central than they really are: a tiny startup can obtain a number in Edinburgh, London or Sheffield as easily as for Eccles, Louth or Six Mile Bottom.

Nor is there any need to register numbers within a single area code. If you’re advertising services under a Cardiff or Swansea number, you might not get a lot of calls from customers in Norfolk. So why not register an East Anglian number too – and conceivably, numbers in any number of other areas – each of which directs to the same location? With VoIP, you don’t need a local office to maintain a local presence.

VoIP on a budget: Behind the scenes

Small businesses may be tempted to sign up for a cut-price consumer-oriented VoIP service, but choosing a dedicated business provider – or at least a business-focused offering from a catch-all supplier – pays dividends. Even before Covid-19, remote working was becoming increasingly common as businesses strove to cut office costs and recruit from a wider pool of talent. A business VoIP service will provide detailed call logs and centralised billing to help managers stay on top of staff activity, and even track performance over time.

Sipgate Team is one such service, with dashboard-based management of VoIP calls and faxes. Sipgate can also take over your existing lines, should you choose to port them, so there’s no need to go through the upheaval of changing your phone number. There’s no line rental fee to be paid on the first number transferred; subsequent numbers attract line rental of £1.95 a month, blocks of three numbers are £4.95 a month, and for ten you’ll be paying £9.95 over the same period, each excluding VAT. Compared to traditional telephony options, these represent immediate savings. To date, more than 100,000 numbers have been ported to Sipgate, and it can provide numbers in over 650 UK code areas and 1,620 other locations worldwide. Be aware that, while setting up new numbers takes mere seconds, porting an existing line will take a minimum of seven business days, but your existing numbers will continue to work uninterrupted during this time.

Once you’re up and running, you can take advantage of all sorts of conveniences that make regular telephone systems look distinctly old-fashioned: voicemail messages are delivered as MP3 files, outgoing faxes can be composed within a web browser, and you can easily set up call groups for providing support or taking orders, with incoming connections placed in a queue and sent to the next team member as soon as one becomes available. If all this has piqued your interest, read our full review of Sipgate Team.

VoIP on a budget: Integrated telephony

As VoIP is an entirely digital service, it can also integrate into your everyday business tools – such as Office 365, G Suite and Zoho CRM – in ways that old-school telephone systems never could. You can initiate calls from within an app with a single click, track responses and set customer records to appear on-screen whenever a call comes in.

One platform that’s particularly embraced VoIP is Microsoft Teams, which brings together voice calling, videoconferencing and document collaboration within a unified environment. Its free plan supports up to 300 concurrent users taking part in audio and video calls, unlimited chat and document collaboration using web-based Office apps. Paid editions start at £9.40 per user per month (exc VAT) and add support for offline Office apps, OneDrive integration, scheduling, meeting recording and even conference hosting for remote audiences of up to 20,000 viewers.

Microsoft Teams supports Windows, macOS and Linux, plus both iOS and Android – and it’s also supported on a range of standalone handsets. If there’s a catch with Teams, it’s purely that many businesses have already made a big investment in Slack to do a similar job. However, Teams trumps Slack by including support for dialling in from the outside world, while Slack only supports calling between users of the Slack app – and even then only within your own workgroups. Still, if you’ve already built a team working workflow with Slack at the centre, it may well meet the needs of staff without a customer-facing role. Others, who prefer not to move away from Slack, can always supplement it with a separate VoIP provision.

VoIP on a budget: Hosting on-site

As your business grows, you may find that a self-hosted VoIP solution starts to make sense. This will give you greater administrative control over your phone service and it’s almost certain to be cheaper, compared to the monthly fees for a hosted service.

The software you need to run your own VoIP services is called an IP PBX, or private branch exchange. At its simplest, this is a private telephone network operated internally and used solely by your organisation; since IP PBX is an open standard, you can mix and match handsets and brands within the system as you choose, allowing you to expand and upgrade on a rolling basis. You can also choose exactly which features you want to use, without paying premiums to a third party.

One of the biggest providers of IP PBX systems is 3CX, offering native software for Linux and Windows as well as cloud-based implementations. It even provides a lean version of its PBX software for running on a Raspberry Pi. IP handsets connected to your network are automatically detected, and the 3CX software can take care of updating their firmware, saving you a tiresome maintenance task.

To connect your PBX software to the main phone network, you’ll need to sign up with a trunking provider, which connects your PBX to the outside world. The 3CX system works with a wide range of providers, and can connect to up to five at once, leaving you covered should one or more services suffer an outage. Read our full review of 3CX Phone System to see why it’s our top VoIP choice.

VoIP on a budget: Taking the plunge

Adopting VoIP doesn’t have to be a big bang: you can start by setting up a single line to run alongside your existing POTS infrastructure. Yorkshire-based Localphone, for example, offers incoming numbers masquerading as lines in 45 countries, with UK numbers priced at just 75p a month. These will handle up to two concurrent calls, with no charge for incoming use unless you hit the 100 calls a day limit, at which point you’ll pay €0.01 per call received.

Should you then decide that VoIP is right for your business, you can consider which provider is best placed to take over your existing numbers, or to otherwise meet your business telephony needs, on the basis of costs, add-ons and integration.

Moving to an on-premises IP PBX might not be everyone’s idea of fun, but 3CX’s Phone System makes it as painless as possible. The installation procedure is kept simple, the feature set will satisfy everything on your wish list, and flexible licensing plans allow you to choose a version that’s suitable for your needs and budget.

The software is versatile too. It supports both Windows and Linux, and will run on a standard PC or server, or in a virtual machine under VMware, Hyper-V or KVM. You can even cloud-host it on Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS/Lightsail or OVH.

For our host we chose a low-cost HPE ProLiant ML110 Gen10 tower server running Windows Server 2019. Deployment was handled by a smart wizard, which guided us through the steps required to get our IP PBX ready for action, including creating an external domain name and setting up an SSL certificate – which 3CX will helpfully host for you – to allow remote users to connect securely.

Perhaps the trickiest part of setup is opening up the SIP and RTP port ranges on your firewall. This is one thing the wizard can’t do for you, but 3CX provides a great online tutorial, and the System’s web console includes a firewall tester to confirm that all required ports are reachable.

The other thing you’ll need to organise yourself is a SIP trunk. 3CX is compatible with a huge number of providers around the world, and you can configure up to five different services to ensure you’re never left in the lurch. For our tests, we used GoTrunk, which came with clear, step-by-step setup instructions for 3CX Phone System. These helped us get the service working in no time – although we subsequently had to live with a slightly annoying red icon appearing permanently on the dashboard, informing us that our chosen provider isn’t officially approved by 3CX.

The phone numbers assigned by your SIP trunk provider can be directed to extensions using inbound rules and, if you have a Pro licence, you can also set up call queues, reports and recording services, along with Office 365 and CRM integration. When you create a new extension, the appropriate person is automatically sent an email with their new phone details, along with a voicemail number and PIN. A link and login details for the web client are also provided, and there’s a call-manager extension for Chrome, which can be left running in the background even if the browser itself isn’t open.

Handset provisioning is deftly handled too. As soon as our Yealink phones were connected to the network, they appeared in the web console, ready to be assigned to users, and the 3CX software thoughtfully updated their firmware for us.

On top of all this, there’s an impressive set of advanced call-handling features. The digital receptionist option presents callers with custom messages and a menu of up to ten options, while call queues and ring groups ensure calls are always answered, users on the road can have calls redirected to their mobile or another extension and web-conferencing services come as standard.

Pricing depends on whether you want a basic licence or all the Pro features, and on how many channels you want supported: a 16SC Pro licence supports up to 16 simultaneous calls, so it should be good for around 50 users. It costs £554 per year, but if you don’t renew the maintenance contract when it expires, it drops down to an 8SC version, which is free forever, including all updates.

With easy deployment, plenty of call features and pricing to suit organisations of all sizes, 3CX Phone System is very hard to fault: we’d happily recommend it to any small business looking for an onsite IP PBX.

SMBs that want a cloud telephony system they can rely on will find the Voip Exchange (VE) service from UK-based Voip Unlimited offers many compelling features. Unlike providers that use third-party cloud platforms, it’s hosted on Voip Unlimited’s own dedicated network in three UK data centres for resiliency and it’s optimised for voice traffic, making it ideal for home workers with limited broadband speeds.

Costs are easily managed, with the base licence starting at £8.50 a month per seat with a minimum one-year contract. This package requires each user to have a desk phone, which VoIP Unlimited can supply, but if you already have compatible phones, it will re-provision them for its service.

Two separate packages are aimed at users that don’t need a desk phone: one provides iOS and Android mobile apps and the second adds a Windows desktop app. The mobile suite package looks good value as it costs £17.50 a month for each seat, enables all apps plus every VE feature and includes 3,000 minutes for outbound calls to landlines and mobiles.

As you’d expect from a hosted VoIP service, VE is easy to deploy. Our account was set up to our requirements by a technician, who assigned numbers for our specific area code plus a group of users as we requested. We asked for Yealink desk phones to be supplied and, as these were pre-registered to our account, we simply connected them to our PoE switch to provision them.

The VE web portal is well designed and easy to navigate. A wizard helps create new users where we provided their personal details, added them to departments, chose a desk phone for them and assigned it a direct dial in (DDI) number.

A feature that will appeal to businesses with distributed offices and home workers in different locations is the option to add extra sites under the top-level business account. These allow different settings to be applied to groups of users and centrally managed from one portal.

Each user receives a personal portal so they can record greeting messages and upload them as WAV files. If permitted, they can set up call twinning so another device such as a mobile rings for incoming calls and use call forwarding when out of the office to redirect inbound calls to another number.

Video conferencing meetings are supported too. Users join by dialling a conference room number, providing a PIN and selecting the camera option on their app. We found that iOS is currently unsupported, but it works fine on Windows, macOS and Android devices.

The interactive voice response (IVR) service adds a professional touch, as you can create a digital receptionist to present callers with a menu of up to 12 options. Record a custom greeting message and you can add multiple branch operations to direct callers to a specific extension, an external number, hunt groups or voicemail, and use time-of-day periods to determine when the IVR is active.

Hunt groups ensure calls are never missed, as you define groups of users so incoming calls to the assigned DDI will ring all phones at once or call each one in strict order. If the call isn’t answered within a period of up to two minutes, you can forward the call to a specific user, an external number, another hunt group or to the IVR.

Ease of use and a swift deployment makes Voip Exchange a great choice for SMBs and home workers. Call-handling features are outstanding, it’s simple to manage and the flexible call plans make it very affordable.

Gradwell Wave is a managed service that's simple to deploy and incredibly easy to use. Developed in the UK, Wave is very affordable and is available in three packages that are based only on the number of monthly call minutes to landlines and mobiles.

Costing £7.50 per user per month, the Wave 100 package supports 100 minutes; Wave 1000 starts at £10.50 and allows 1,000 minutes; and Wave 3000 costs from £15 and increases call allowances to a huge 3,000 minutes (50 hours). Your choices are simplified even further as all packages offer the same rich set of call-handling features and include the Wave desktop and mobile apps, plus a Chrome browser click-to-call extension.

Onboarding is swift: Gradwell created a cloud account for us and added a base set of users as requested. If you want deskphones, that isn't a problem as Gradwell offers Yealink, Poly and Snom models and delivers them preconfigured so they link up with your account automatically.

Wave is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and scales to cope with heavy demand by creating new instances during these periods. Redundancy is covered too, as Wave is deployed across three geographically diverse AWS sites.

Call costs are easily managed, with the admin portal presenting an overview of available monthly call time minutes and an estimation of the next bill. International call restrictions can be applied and customised with exceptions so only specific users or devices are allowed to call certain regions, countries or numbers.

You can assign daily limits on call costs with spend thresholds, and Wave will alert you when you are nearing them and then block all further calls once exceeded. Detailed reporting provides graphs on inbound and outbound calls, the busiest users and call queue usage, while the new wallboard display shows daily live call activity and the busiest callers.

From their personal web portal, users can download the Wave apps and, along with Android and iOS, Gradwell now provides Windows and macOS versions. New features include global presence indicators that show each user's status, options to assign a busy lamp field (BLF) to handset screen menus and direct access to voicemail, with the next version due to add voicemail transcription.

Video conferencing (VC) isn't supported by the apps as this is handled by Gradwell's Teams+ add-on, which costs £2.50 per user per month. After linking your Microsoft 365 tenant with Wave and enabling Teams integration for users, their Teams desktop client is updated to provide direct access to their Wave account so they can make and receive calls and create VC sessions.

Wave offers plenty of business-class call-handling features, with its slick interactive voice response service allowing you to record custom voice prompts, upload a WAV file or use the Wave default prompts. For hunt groups, you assign a direct inward dial number and add multiple steps that define which extensions will be called and in what order and where to route the call if it goes unanswered.

Wave also offers call conferencing, pick-up groups and automatic routing based on calendars or bank holidays. Its flexible call queues provide options for advising callers that they'll be recorded, playing music on hold and presenting them with a range of custom messages while they wait.

Gradwell's Wave is ideal for small businesses that want the smoothest possible path to VoIP. This cloud-hosted service is easy to manage, packed with great call-handling features and offered in a straightforward range of affordable plans.

Migrating office IT infrastructure to the cloud is an increasingly popular choice for SMEs keen to save on in-house hardware. However, the old office phone system is still there, squatting like a toad in a corner of the comms room, or bolted to the office wall like a brutalist homage to greyish-blue plastic.

This tutorial will show you how to get rid of your old PBX and deploy an open source VoIP solution on the cloud platform of your choice, using Ubuntu 18.04, Asterisk 13, and FreePBX 14.

The first thing you need to do is choose a cloud provider, and set up a virtual network there. If you've already migrated some of your IT infrastructure to the cloud, you probably already have this in place, but if not, you'll need to set it up before starting this tutorial. We used Azure, which is reflected in our screenshots. However, these instructions are platform-agnostic.

Access to this virtual network can be either via a site-to-site VPN from your office to the virtual network via your cloud provider's VPN service, or directly to the public IP of the new PBX server. Either way, your office internet connection will need to have a static IP address.In this tutorial, we'll be connecting directly to the public IP of the PBX. VPN users will need to adjust the SIP NAT settings accordingly.

With a virtual network prepared, we can start building a cloud PBX.

Step 1: Deploy Cloud VM

Deploy an Ubuntu 18.04 virtual machine with a single NIC connected to that virtual network. If you generate new access keys for this deployment, make sure to save them somewhere safe, and document their location and pass phrase, as well as the username needed to log in. Via your cloud provider's management console, assign it a static public IP address and set up a security group associated with this IP address. The default rules in the security group will block direct access to the server from the internet.

Even if your office phones will access this PBX via a VPN, it'll still need a public IP address in order to communicate with the trunk provider. We'll cover setting up a trunk later in this tutorial. For now, add an access rule to the security group allowing connections from your office IP address on TCP ports 22, 80 and 443.

Step 2: Install dependencies

Log in to your new virtual machine as a normal user - not as root, even if your cloud provider allows it - via ssh, and run the following commands to update it and install some required software and dependencies.

FreePBX version 14 and earlier are built for php5.6 and do not support the newer php7 that Ubuntu 18.04 ships with. To get it working, we need to add the php5.6 repository and install php5.6. Run the following commands to add the repository and install and enable php5.6 on the PBX.

Next, we'll add the official node.js repository and install node.js from there. While node.js is available from the standard Ubuntu repositories, a more up-to-date version is required for FreePBX.

Step 3: Add a swap file (optional)

Whilst some people would argue that you no longer need a swap file, Linux is generally happier with one and Asterisk will warn you that it's missing every time you log in.

Step 4: Install Asterisk

Install the Asterisk VoIP PBX package. By default this will also install the sound files for English, but if you need other languages you'll have to install those separately. As an example, we'll add French as well. To keep things simple, we're using the version from the default Ubuntu repository, rather than using a third party repo to get a newer version.

Step 5: Configure Apache

To configure the PBX, we'll install the FreePBX web GUI. We'll be using version 14 of FreePBX. However, before we can do that we need to change a few Apache settings. Run the following commands to setup Apache for FreePBX:

Now open /etc/apache2/apache2.conf in your preferred text editor and go to line 170. Remember to use sudo to edit this file as root. We need to change the override permissions for the webserver root directory so that FreePBX can use rewrite statements in htaccess files without causing errors. Find the section that looks like this:

Change the AllowOverride value from None to All, so that it looks like this:

Now restart Apache and PHP with the following commands:

Step 6: Download and install FreePBX

We'll be using the latest release of FreePBX version 14. Download and unpack it:

This will place the FreePBX installer into a directory in your home folder called "freepbx". Go to this directory and install FreePBX by running the following commands. You can safely ignore the PHP warning it generates. The installer will ask you to provide multiple responses relating to install locations and database setup. Just press enter each time to accept the default value.

That last command removes the default index file that was installed with Apache. This is no longer needed as the FreePDX package provides its own PHP-based index file.

Step 7: Initial setup

For most of the remaining steps, we move away from the command line, and configure the system using the FreePBX web front end. Open your preferred web browser, and go to the public IP address of your new PBX.

You'll be presented with the initial setup screen, as shown below. Enter an admin username, password and email address, and make a note of the username and password somewhere secure. It's also a good idea to set the system identifier to the same value as the hostname you chose for the virtual machine. This avoids any confusion that might arise from the PBX having a different name at command line than it does when using the web interface. Finally, click on the Submit button in the bottom right to close this screen.

Step 8: First login and module configuration

Once you've completed the initial setup process, you'll be taken to the login screen. Click on FreePBX Administration and log in using the admin username and password you chose earlier. As this is your first login, you'll be asked to set the system locale and timezone. Set them to the correct values, and click on the submit button.

Once this is done, you'll be taken to the system dashboard. This is the landing page when you login to the interface, and presents you with information about the current system state.

Along the top of the page are various drop-down menus for administering the system. Note the Apply Config button at the top right. This is used to commit and activate changes made in the web interface to the PBX. It's only shown when there are uncommitted changes. Don't click on it yet.

The first thing to do is to update the FreePBX modules. Mouse over the Admin menu at the top left, then select Module Admin from the menu. Click on Check Online to populate the list and see if there are any new module updates available. Once it's finished, click on the Upgrade All button on the right, above the module list. This flags all modules with available updates ready for upgrading.

Towards the top left of the module update page is a list of repositories. We will only be using the pre-selected standard repository, not the extended or unsupported ones.

Now click on the process button towards the top right. On the next page, click Confirm and wait for the modules to be updated. Once the process completes, click on the Return button at the bottom right corner of the progress box that popped up when you confirmed the upgrade. This will take you back to the module admin page.

Step 9: Basic module installation

The default installation of FreePBX only comes with the core modules. For a basic office PBX, we'll need to install a few more to set up some standard office features. From the list of modules available, select the following and click on the Download and Install button.

With those four selected, click the Process button, and confirm the install on the next page. Once complete, click on return to close the status window and go back to the module admin page one more time. Click on Check Online again, then install the Time Conditions module from the Applications section in the same way you did the previous modules.

Step 10: Advanced settings menu

Mouse over Settings at the right-hand end of the menu bar, then select Advanced Settings from the drop-down menu. Scroll down to Dialplan and Operational. Locate the Country Indication Tones setting and set it to the correct value for your country. Then scroll down a little way, still within this section, and locate the SIP Channel Driver setting. Set this to "chan_sip". Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Submit.

Next, mouseover the Settings menu again and select Asterisk SIP Settings from the menu. On the General SIP Settings tab, locate the NAT Settings section and click on the Detect Network Settings button to automatically fill in the correct NAT settings.

If you are connecting to the PBX via a VPN from your office to the cloud network, then you will need to add your office IP ranges to the list of local networks here.

Next, click on the Chan SIP Settings tab. At the top of the options, set NAT to yes, then scroll down the page until you reach the Advanced General Settings section. Set the Bind Port value to 5060 and the TLS Bind Port value to 5061. Scroll down to the bottom and click Submit in the bottom right.

Step 11: Adding extensions and a ring group

Next, we need to set up some extensions. We're going to use SIP, the most common extension type used for both VoIP desk phones and softphones. Mouse over the Applications menu and select Extensions from the drop-down. Click on the Add Extension button and select New Chan_SIP Extension.

Enter a number and display name for the new extension, and make a note of the extension number along with the "Secret" value. You'll need these, as well as the IP address of the PBX, to configure your phones. You can leave the Outbound CID value blank as, in this case, it'll be set by the trunk when we configure it later.

Next, click on the Voicemail tab, enable voicemail and set a password. Voicemail is optional, but it's useful to have at least one extension with it enabled as a failover destination for unanswered incoming calls.

Now go to the Advanced tab, locate the NAT Mode option and set it to "Yes - (force_rport,comedia)". Finally, click the Submit button at the bottom right. Repeat this process for each new extension number you need to add to your system. We used three digit extension numbers, but you can use any length you wish.

Those of you using a site-to-site VPN to access the PBX will instead want to set the NAT mode for your extensions to "No - (no)" instead.

With that done, click on the Apply Config button at the top right, and wait until the "Reloading" message disappears before continuing below.

Go back to the Applications menu and select Ring Groups from the drop-down. Click on Add Ring Group. On the next page, the main details you need to fill in are the ring group number, the group description, and the extension list. Extensions can be easily added to the list using the User Quick Select drop-down to the right of the Extension List box.

It's best to use a different length number for ring groups than for extensions, as it clearly distinguishes them for the users. We'll use four digit numbers for out ring groups, but you can use however many digits you want.

Lastly, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on the "Destination if no answer" box. Select Voicemail from the list of options, and choose which extension's voicemail box unanswered calls should go to.

Step 12: Add a trunk and outbound route

In order to make and receive calls, the PBX will need a trunk. VoIP trunks are available from many different providers. Which one is best for you will depend on your requirements and budget.

Mouse over the Connectivity menu, and select Trunks from the drop-down menu. Click Add Trunk and select the correct type to match your VoIP trunk provider's offering. In this case we will be using a SIP trunk, as those are the most common type.

Under the General tab of the Add Trunk page, choose a name for your trunk. If you plan on having multiple trunks from different VoIP providers, it helps to name each trunk after its provider. Set the Outbound CallerID and Maximum Channels values as per the values supplied by your trunk provider.

Next, click on the SIP Setting tab and input the details provided by your VoIP trunk provider. For the inbound and outbound trunk names, we used the trunk name we provided on the general tab, with "_in" and "_out" appended.

Next, we need to add an outbound route for making calls outside of the PBX. We're using the traditional prefix method, in this case prefixing a number with a '9' to get an outside line. You can alternatively program the PBX to determine whether a number is internal or external based on matching the pattern of the number, but that's more complicated, as you have to know all the possible number patterns that your users might dial.

Mouse over Connectivity on the menu bar and select Outbound Routes from the drop-down menu. Click on Add Outbound Route. On the Route Settings tab, give the route a name and select the trunk you just created from the drop-down list for Trunk Sequence for Matched Routes.

Next, click on the Dial Patterns tab and fill in the dial pattern. Set the prefix to '9' and put a full stop in the "match pattern" box. This will match any number you dial that starts with a '9', and strip that leading '9' off. So to call 0343 222 1234 - an outside line - you would actually dial 90343 222 1234. Finally click on Submit at the bottom right.

Step 13: Add outbound routes to emergency services

All phone systems must be able to make emergency calls and prioritise them over normal calls. To do this, a special emergency outbound route is created.

Once again, mouse over Connectivity on the menu bar, select Outbound Routes from the menu, then click on Add Outbound Route. On the Route Settings tab, give the route a name like "Emergency" or "999", set the Route CID to your geographic phone number, as provided by your VoIP provider, and set the route type to "Emergency".

This last step gives calls to emergency services priority over other routes. In the event that all channels are in use when someone places an emergency call, the PBX will drop another call in order to free up a channel for the emergency call. Set the Route Position to first, above your normal outbound route.

Next, click on the Dial Patterns tab and set the values shown in the image below. These will recognise calls to 999 and 112, with or without the outside line prefix.

Step 14: Adding inbound routes

To receive calls from outside, an inbound route must be defined. This tells the PBX where to route incoming calls based on the number called (referred to as DID) and the caller ID (CID).

Mouse over Connectivity on the menu bar and select Inbound Routes from the menu. Click on Add Inbound Route. On the General tab, enter your main office phone number in the DID Number box, without any spaces. Enter it in the same format that your VoIP provider used when they gave it to you. Add a description for this inbound route in the box provided at the top of the section. At the bottom of the section, set the destination to the ring group we created earlier, then click the Submit button at the bottom right.

Click on the Apply Changes button at the top right to commit the new configuration entries to the PBX.

Step 15: Add cloud firewall rules for your phones and trunk provider

In order for the phones and the VoIP trunk provider to communicate with the PBX, we will need to add some access rules to the cloud provider's firewall settings for this virtual machine.

You need to open ports 5060-5061 and 10000-20000 for both TCP and UDP protocols from the IP addresses of your trunk provider and your office. This rule will allow the phones and the trunk provider to communicate with the PBX properly. Refer to your cloud provider's documentation for details on how to configure the firewall.

Capacity and costs

Your VM requirements, and therefore your costs, for the cloud PBX will depend entirely on your requirements. A basic PBX for an office with only a few staff won't need much in the way of resources, and could run happily on a low-power virtual machine with a single core and 2GB RAM.

However, if you have several hundred users making a large number of simultaneous calls, then you'll need a significantly more powerful virtual machine with much more memory. Likewise, site-to-site VPNs vary in price depending on your requirements.

Don't choose a larger virtual machine than you actually need, and don't use the site to site VPN features unless you really need them. Only provision what you actually require, and you'll keep your costs to a minimum.

Compelling communication is a crucial part of any enterprise, allowing a continuous flow of information between staff, suppliers and customers alike, and helping working relationships in the process.

Whatever of the size of your enterprise, effective business communication is important for growth, aligning everyone to business goals, and decreasing mistakes while keeping everyone informed.

To spread information around your enterprise, the options for pre-COVID-style in-person meetings are unfortunately very rare these days, so the importance of cloud communications (voice, email, chat and video) has become even more evident.

With the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a notable increase in organisations transitioning towards the cloud to enable business continuity as their workforces were compelled to stay at home. And with this trend of remote working here to stay, cloud communications have been pivotal in providing staff with the tools and applications to sustain productivity.

Being able to bring people together globally in this way has helped organisations across all industries, with information shared instantaneously allowing faster decision making.

This brand-new way of managing communication online has meant there has been no hardware to install, or phone lines to connect, and no legacy infrastructure to integrate, bringing great cost savings. And it also means that, without having to swap between devices and applications, it permits scalability.

What is cloud communications?

"Cloud communications" is a term that covers a multitude of things. Broadly speaking, it's any voice and data service where the whole of its processes - the software, switching, and storage - are hosted remotely by a third party, which is to say in the cloud.

Under this umbrella, there are numerous offerings with varying levels of comprehensiveness (or intricacies, if you prefer) - from basic chat platforms to unified communications as a service (UCaaS).

What is VoIP?

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP as it's more commonly known, is one of the oldest forms of cloud communications.

VoIP does what it says on the tin: It lets users make telephone calls over the internet, rather than using traditional phone lines.

There are numerous benefits to VoIP - initially, it removed the need for trunking and simplified the installation of phones on desks. In some cases, VoIP services also use "soft phones" - handsets with no fixed number associated with them. Instead, users enter a pin at the beginning of the working day to associate the phone to them.

This has now diverged further, with apps that allow business calls to come to a user's personal smartphone, without them having to give out their personal phone number. Generally, these apps can be turned to busy during meetings or outside work hours and if the user is on long-term leave, such parental leave or a sabbatical, the app can be temporarily deleted.

Similarly, if the individual leaves the company, they won't be receiving unwanted or potentially sensitive calls, as their mobile number will remain private.

What are chat clients?

Chat clients are another form of cloud communications but are based on text rather than voice.

Commonly known as live chat in business, these hosted services are particularly useful in frontline customer services where they can be used to help answer less complex queries. They can also be combined with chatbots - a type of AI that can answer the most straightforward questions, such as those you may find in an FAQ. This frees up customer service operatives to deal with more complicated situations that require a human touch, whether that's also via chat or over the phone.

Another use of chat clients is for internal communications. Products like Microsoft Teams and Slack enable employees to collaborate with each other in dedicated channels set by the business, as well as instant messaging between two individuals or a small group. There are even options to create private external rooms to allow people from outside of the core business to collaborate on a project.

Some chat clients, such as Skype, also include voice and video calling. While these aren't a full unified communications service (as laid out below), they may be suitable for some organisations' needs as a halfway house between the two.

What is Unified Communications as a Service?

One of the most comprehensive forms of cloud communications can be found in Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). This offering draws together a wide range of services, which would have normally been independent from each other. This includes SMS, MMS messaging, chat clients, and voice telephony as well as its trimmings such as call recording or voicemail.

It’s worth browsing a variety of product options as some of them allow integration with other cloud-based platforms, like Microsoft 365 or Salesforce, where users can make the most of additional features like incoming call notifications or one-click dialling.

Be aware, however, that some UCaaS products will offer more features than others. Some will include greater functionality, while others might target call centres, or specialise in services for small businesses and so on. It’s really worth carrying out your independent research to explore which offering is the best for your business. However, as there isn’t any physical infrastructure that needs to be installed, it’s always fairly easy to change to a different provider than the one you first chose if you’re not enjoying the service as much as you thought you would.

The good news is that there are various channel organisations that provide UCaaS services. It’s definitely worth your time to explore the options provided by any resellers who already do business with you and see what they can provide you with.

How much does cloud communications cost?

You probably won’t be surprised to hear that the cost of these services depends on the features offered by the service. For example, simple Plain VoIP can usually be sourced from your current communications business, like Virgin Media Business or BT Business, as long as you’re willing to pay a small extra fee. This is particularly true for anyone running a small business.

On the other hand, a broader, beefed up, UCaaS offering will tend to fetch a higher price, no matter how big your business is, solely because it has more functionality and features to offer to buyers.

There will be additional factors which could affect the price, including how many seats you’ll need, any deals that are being offered, and what kind of service level you’re going for, such as 99.99999% uptime in contrast to 80% uptime, or working hours only vs 24-hour customer service. As you’ve probably guessed by now, it’s worth carrying out your own research and seeing what the best offer or deal is available to you as well as what you’re able to negotiate.

Sennheiser is known for high-end audio equipment and has a good reputation for its business-focused noise-cancelling headsets, used by everyone from on-the-go executives trying to concentrate on busy flights to sales professionals who spend most of their time making calls.

We've previously reviewed the company's MB 660 headphones - a top-notch pair of cans which we absolutely loved, but which was slightly undermined by a rather eye-watering price tag. Happily, the Sennheiser MB 360 UCs promise to offer the audio quality and top-rate noise cancelling which made the MB 660s so appealing, all in a markedly cheaper package.

Sennheiser MB 360 UC review: Design

On first glance, the Sennheiser MB 360s are as sleek and sophisticated as you'd expect from a company as respected as this. The minimalist matte-black colour scheme with tell-tale silver accents gives them a subtle and refined look, and the leather-effect pads are soft enough to wear for extended periods with minimal discomfort.

However, it's hard not to compare these cans to Sennheiser's superlative MB 660 headset, and unfortunately, the design falls short in a few areas. For one thing, the headband has virtually no padding, so it can get a little uncomfortable if you're wearing it all day. The folding mechanism also isn't as slick as the MB 660s, meaning the MB 360s aren't as compact and easy to store.

Our biggest gripe, however, is with the controls. The right ear cup features buttons to control any media you're listening to, as well as various call-handling features, but they're fiddly and irritating to work with. Media is controlled with a slider - flick it one way to skip a track, the other way to go back, and press it down to play or pause.

It's way too easy to accidentally flick it one way while trying to pause things, and we would have vastly preferred to have playing and pausing be handled by a separate button altogether. This, too, is handled much better by the MB 660s, which feature simple and (relatively) intuitive touch-based controls.

Sennheiser MB 360 UC review: Sound quality

As with virtually all of Sennheiser's kit, the audio quality is excellent. While music can occasionally sound a little flat, with other headphones delivering wider soundstages and more defined vocals, the performance is still great on the whole.

More importantly, the call quality (which, let's not forget, is the main raison d'etre of professional headsets like the MB 360s) is brilliant. Voices come across clear and defined, even across shaky conference lines, with the headphones reproducing voices clearly and naturally.

The twin inbuilt microphones are a little more disappointing, though. While they worked perfectly well - for the most part - they struggled a bit in smaller spaces. There were a few occasions when the echoey acoustics of smaller meeting-rooms forced us to switch from using the MB 360s to our handset mid-call, which isn't necessarily ideal.

Thankfully, the Active Noise Cancelling of the headphones themselves is much more polished. As with the MB 660s, this is an outstanding implementation of the technology which strips out virtually all outside noise allowing you to fully immerse yourself in whatever you're listening to - or even just to cut out ambient noise for a bit of peace and quiet in a busy office. It's not quite as effective as the MB 660s, but we suspect that's largely down to the differences in physical design, and the difference is marginal.

Sennheiser MB 360 UC review: Connections and battery life

As you'd rightly expect from a set of business-grade headphones, the MB 360s come with a full suite of connectivity options, such as Bluetooth 4.0 (including support for Qualcomm's aptX technology), as well as NFC for rapid connection. If your laptop doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity built in, Sennheiser has bundled a USB dongle to get you connected. It's also got a 2.5mm jack input for connecting to traditional 3.5mm headphone ports - handy for long flights or for when the headset has run out of battery.

Not that that's likely to be a problem - Sennheiser quotes a battery life of up to 25 hours, and we managed roughly a week and a half of semi-regular use without having to put them back on charge. Our one complaint with regards to the charging is that there's no automatic power-off function.

Our beloved MB 660s, when folded up, automatically switch themselves off, allowing you to conserve battery easily without having to take the time to manually turn them off. By contrast, we repeatedly found that we'd accidentally taken them off and put them in our bag without powering them down, leading to an unnecessarily wasted few hours of battery life.

One big frustration we had with the connectivity is that the headphones can only connect to one device at a time; if you've connected them to your phone for a bit of music on the way into work and want to switch to your laptop for a video call, for example, you'll have to disconnect from your phone before you can connect to your laptop, which is an annoying hassle.

Sennheiser MB 360 UC review: Features

Aside from the excellent ANC technology, which we've already mentioned, the MB 360s have some tricks in store to appeal to busy modern professionals. As you'd expect, you have a full range of call handling functionalities built into the control buttons, as well as the ability to activate your device's digital assistant with a few swift button presses.

As the name would imply, the MB 360 UCs are optimised for unified comms tools like softphones, and they're also certified by Microsoft for its Skype for Business software. This will likely only make a difference if you're a Microsoft shop, but it's worth bearing in mind if so.

Sennheiser MB 360 UC review: Verdict

The MB 360s are an attractive compromise for businesses that want the professional-level audio quality of a set of Sennheiser headphones without the somewhat eye-watering price of its top-end range. True, they don't quite match up to the build quality or audio fidelity of the MB 660s, but that's a forgivable trade-off considering they cost roughly half the price.

For your money, you're still getting excellent ANC, a reasonably solid and sturdy construction, great audio and lengthy battery life. Honestly, the biggest gripe we have is with the fiddly controls, but in the grand scheme of things, it's a relatively small nitpick to overlook.

Busy mobile professionals will love the MB 360s almost as much as their more expensive cousins, and businesses will love the value they offer compared to flashier and more expensive headphones. If you're looking for business-grade cans at a wallet-friendly price, these are the ones to go for.

Verdict

A few odd nitpicks aside, these headphones offer excellent business-grade connectivity for a great price, including top-notch ANC and great audio quality

SMEs that want a well-featured on-premises IP PBX at a very affordable price will find Kerio's Operator software has a lot to offer. This Linux-based package is surprisingly easy to deploy and can be installed on any reasonably specified hardware platform or virtualized on a Hyper-V or VMware host.

Prices starts at 252 which includes the server license, support for 5 users and the first year maintenance contract. Annual maintenance renewals are charged at around one-third of the initial price while additional users cost 21 each.

Kerio provides free softphone apps for Windows, Mac and Linux clients but its iOS and Android apps cost 2.99 and 3.59 per user respectively. Many cloud providers and on-premises vendors such as 3CX include all softphone apps for free.

For testing, we took the Windows Hyper-V path and had the downloaded ISO file installed on our Windows Server 2016 host and ready for action in 15 minutes. The appliance's main web interface is a tidy affair and opens with a customisable dashboard showing system health, active calls, recent call history, call queues and logs.

Users can be created manually where you assign an extension number, enter their email address and control access by adding them to a call permission group. Users can also be mapped from an Active Directory (AD) server and a useful feature is that disabling a user in AD also blocks them from using their Operator account.

From the web console's Call Routing section, we added our VoIP Unlimited SIP trunk details and assigned extensions to each of its phone number aliases. IP phone auto-provisioning is tedious as it requires a DHCP server with option 66 set, so phones use the appliance's TFTP server to download their configuration file.

For our Yealink T23G phones, we used their own web console to manually add the appliance's IP address and an Operator username and password. They then downloaded the Yealink profile, were assigned to the user and received a company logo for their LCD display.

Mobile users without access to a softphone can stay in touch via the Operator web portal and use it to make calls, access voice mail and create custom messages or speed dial entries. Security is tight as the appliance has its own firewall and can protect against SIP password guessing by blocking IP addresses that make too many unsuccessful login attempts.

User call handling features are extensive and there's nothing to do to set up voice mail - it's enabled by default and assigned pre-recorded answering messages and instructions, a ring timeout and a 4-digit access PIN. From the Voicemail section, you can have messages left by callers emailed to users and enable incoming and outgoing call recording.

Call queues distribute incoming calls to logged-in users and Operator has most situations covered, as it offers six handling schemes including "round robin with memory", "random" or "the least recently called agent". Music on hold can be played and you can upload custom WAV or GSM files to Operator's audio library.

Auto Attendant scripts are a powerful feature; these allow you to create extensive menus and sub-menus of options, announcements, instructions and lists of available extensions and present them to callers. Ringing groups will cause all member phones to ring when a call comes in and you can set up conferences between Operator users and external callers.

Kerio Operator is a great choice for small businesses as it supports plenty of deployment options and doesn't ask for much in the hardware department. IP phone provisioning needs streamlining but it won't be faulted for its impressive range of VoIP features and great value.

Verdict

Kerio Operator is a great choice for small businesses as it supports plenty of deployment options and doesn’t ask for much in the hardware department. IP phone provisioning needs streamlining but it won’t be faulted for its impressive range of VoIP features and great value.

Recommended hardware: Intel Core Duo 2GHz or equivalent

2GB of RAM

16GB hard disk space

Ethernet card

Small businesses looking for an affordable and flexible cloud VoIP service will love Sipgate Team. Monthly prices start as low as £9.95 per user and you have the option of upgrading or downgrading plans at any time, so you don’t end up paying for services you don’t need.

The starter Business S plan offers a simple pay-as-you-go service where you pay nothing for internal and VoIP-to-VoIP calls, 1p per minute for landlines calls and 9.9p for those to mobiles. For unlimited use, you can add a UK call package for £30 per month, while £50 covers all calls to the EU.

The Business L plan costs £14.95 per month per user and includes the UK call package, while Business XL takes this to £19.95 and enables the EU package. All plans start with one free UK phone number assigned to your account, with further numbers costing £1.95 each per month or £9.95 for a block of ten, while a one-time fee of £20 is incurred if you port existing numbers across.

After the sign-up process, Sipgate posts you a start code as a security measure, but you don’t need to wait for this as Sipgate now implements an online check. In less than 24 hours, we received an email confirming our business address was valid and the account was active.

The administrative web portal is a tidy affair and opens with a page offering quick access to all the service’s features. Be prepared for some manual labour though, as Sipgate doesn’t have an import function: user accounts must be created individually by entering their name and email address and assigning a phone number plus extension.

There was more work to be done for hardware provisioning. Our Yealink handsets had to be configured for each user by entering their account and SIP proxy details in the phone web interfaces. This will be a pain for large numbers of users, but a big advantage is that Sipgate Team will work with just about any IP phone.

Users receive welcome emails with their personal web portal details and a secure password that must be changed after they first log in. Users will like the portal as it provides options to view personal call logs, create contact lists, block nuisance calls and route calls to another phone or mobile.

Home workers that don’t need a desk phone can use the portal’s Click2Dial instant call feature, load a web phone directly from their portal and install Sipgate’s new softphone app for Windows, macOS or Linux. Sipgate doesn’t provide its own mobile apps but supports plenty of third-party ones; we had no problems using Zoiper for iOS on an iPad.

Call-handling features are extensive with the Business L and XL packages adding an interactive voice response service. It provides a virtual switchboard where you can present a greeting message with instructions and assign up to ten users or groups with options to direct callers to the right place.

These plans also include call queue support, where you create groups of users with a new phone number and extension assigned and upload a custom greeting message. If all group members are busy, callers will be put on hold and directed to the first person that becomes available.

Low monthly charges and no minimum contract make Sipgate Team an attractive choice for small businesses that don’t want to be tied to lengthy agreements for cloud voice services. The manual phone provisioning will require some technical skill, but plenty of help is provided, and the new desktop apps and softphones add extra appeal.

RingCentral Office is one of the best cloud-hosted VoIP services around, providing a wealth of enterprise-class communications features at a price that’s right for SMBs. Indeed, this latest version brings a raft of new features that turn the service into a bona fide unified communications solution.

The video, team messaging, fax and cloud-phone services have been brought together, for example. Before, you had to use separate apps for these, but now they have been integrated into one place, giving users a central hub for communication and collaboration.

In fact, you don’t even need to install the app, as the features can all be accessed via any browser with WebRTC enabled. Simply point it at RingCentral’s app URL, log in with your credentials and you’ll be looking at the same interface as in the app, with the ability to make calls, start or join video meetings and share files.

It’s all very easy to use: select an individual contact and a request box pops up with instant options to make a phone call, start a video meeting or send a message. Lists of personal, team and company contacts make it a breeze to set up larger meetings.

RingCentral’s videoconferencing features deserve particular praise; the app has all sorts of clever capabilities, including breakout rooms for splitting meeting participants into smaller groups, and the ability to overlay video onto the screen being presented. Virtual backgrounds can be added too – you can use the predefined library of images or upload your own, and even make meetings more fun by uploading videos or GIF files to provide animated backgrounds.

The administrative cloud portal has been spruced up too, with the homepage providing quick access to all features. You can create multiple sites, each with its own set of business hours and auto-receptionist, which plays a recorded message asking callers to enter an extension or wait to be connected to an operator.

User setup starts with creating an extension, then assigning it a number from the pool and optionally provisioning a physical handset. If you don’t have a handset, RingCentral can provide a big selection, including models from Cisco, Poly, Unify and Yealink – or you can skip the hardware and just use the mobile or desktop apps, all of which are included in the price.

We opted to use our own Yealink T48S handsets, and this went perfectly smoothly. The portal provided a provisioning URL, and when we visited this from each phone’s web console, the appropriate settings were automatically applied. Our older Yealink T23G models proved a little trickier – here we had to manually enter our account and SIP trunk details. This wasn’t hard, though, as the RingCentral welcome email provided clear instructions.

Once a user’s extension is set up they get a good range of call-handling features. Every user can set up a personal recorded greeting message, and choose from a range of call connecting and on-hold music themes. Call forwarding can be configured by creating rule sets: after a set period of ringing, calls can be transferred to a specified extension, a specified user, an external number or voicemail.

As for pricing, you have a choice of four packages. The Entry option starts at a low £8 per user per month, and provides each one with 100 minutes of free outbound calls, as well as features such as voicemail and team messaging. To get HD video meetings, you’ll need to step up to the Standard package, which starts at £15 per month and increases the monthly outgoing call allowance to 750 minutes.

RingCentral Office is a smart cloud-hosted communications solution that comes with outstanding videoconferencing services. It’s easy to deploy, the new desktop apps are very impressive and it’s offered in a range of affordable plans.

SMEs that want to host their own IP PBX will love 3CX's Phone System, as it offers every feature they could possibly need. Furthermore, pricing is based on the number of simultaneous calls and not physical extensions, making it even easier to choose the right license.

3CX also offers a free 16SC version which supports 16 simultaneous calls and includes maintenance for the first year. If you don't renew the contract after this period, it automatically drops to the 4SC version which includes perpetual updates.

You can host Phone System on a Windows or Linux server, run it on a mini PC, virtualize it on Hyper-V, VMware or KVM hosts or cloud host it with providers such as Amazon Lightsail, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. If you decide to go from on-premises to the cloud, the new PBX Express tool migrates your IP PBX without losing your settings.

For testing, we used an HPE ProLiant DL20 Gen9 rack server equipped with a 3.4GHz Xeon E3-1230 v5 CPU and 16GB of DDR4 - powerful enough to handle 256 simultaneous calls. Software installation is swift and the setup wizard had us up and running in 30 minutes.

We needed to open up SIP and RTP ports on our firewall using port forwarding rules, but 3CX provides detailed online tutorials. On completion, a firewall checker tested all required ports and gave us a green light to continue.

3CX requires an external FQDN (fully qualified domain name) and SSL certificate to ensure remote users can connect securely to the IP PBX. It can provide these services for you and they will still continue to function even if you're running the free 4SC version.

Just create an extension number for each user; importing them from Active Directory adds details such as email addresses and mobile numbers. 3CX also provides SMTP services and users receive an email with extension details, voice mail access PIN and a download link for the 3CX Windows softphone along with a registration file.

IP phone provisioning is a walk in the park: our Yealink T23G phones appeared in the console as soon as they came online. After assigning them to each user, they were set up automatically and even had their firmware updated to the latest version.

3CX offers a stunning range of call handling features and its smart console provides easy access to them. Inbound rules allowed us to assign our SIP trunk phone number aliases to selected extensions and route them to voicemail or an external number outside of office hours.

Caller ID inbound rules route calls from specific numbers to selected extensions while call queues and ring groups ensure calls are always answered. Outbound rules control all aspects of outgoing calls and for backup, you can assign up to 5 SIP trunks.

A digital receptionist ensures callers go to the correct person by presenting them with custom messages and menu options. Each user can have their calls recorded to the Phone System host as WAV files while hot-desking in the Pro and Enterprise versions allows selected extensions to be shared by multiple users.

Free softphones for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices are provided and we registered our iPad by scanning the QR code in our personal web portal. The portal also provided quick access for running web meetings or conferences and accessing call features, chats, contacts and voice mail.

A great combination of call handling features and deployment options makes 3CX's Phone System the perfect choice for SMEs that want to host their own IP PBX. It's easy to install and manage and simply won't be beaten for value.

Verdict

We were extremely impressed with how easy it was to deploy the 3CX Phone System software and the range of communications features on offer. SMEs that want to host their own IP PBX are looking at the best solution money can buy.

Windows 10, Server 2012 upwards

Linux Debian 8 upwards

A business phone system may seem like a small thing, but it’s a little change that can generate a big result for your business. Whether you use it for sales calls, liaising with partners and distributors, or communicating with customers, some form of business phone network can give your business the boost you’re looking for.

Not only does a professional-grade phone system make a small business appear more impressive to customers, it also shows how seriously you take your business. Outdated voicemails and one main phone line that no one answers do nothing for your brand image.

A traditional landline, however, is no longer as viable with our new ways of working. Many businesses were already choosing to use Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, and now, with so many of us working from home, this software is an ideal choice for a company phone setup.

You’ve probably already used VoIP for personal or business uses - think Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Skype. You only need an internet connection to make and receive calls, whether through app-based ‘softphones’ or additional headsets or handsets that work just like normal phones.

VoIP offers a range of benefits over traditional phones, though, as they’re easier to manage, less expensive, don’t require physical equipment and installation, and allow your employees to work from anywhere. VoIP systems usually include enhanced functions as well, such as smartphone integration and advanced call handling rules. And as your business grows, it’s cheap and easy to upgrade your telephony system.

As plenty as the advantages of VoIP are, however, you don’t want to jump to a decision too quickly. There is a huge range of services to choose from, so here are a few key things to keep in mind while you shop around for the internet phone package that best suits your needs.

Is your broadband up to it?

Before implementing a VoIP system, you will need to ensure your internet connection is fast enough for voice calls. Generally, one VoIP telephone call will use around 90-100Kbits/sec of bandwidth, both downstream and upstream.

To test if your connection is fast enough, you can use one of the online VoIP speed-quality tests available such as myspeed.visualware.com or voipreview.org.

If your internet connection is already pushed to the limit, then you must upgrade it. A lack of bandwidth will quickly turn VoIP calls into garbled mush that certainly won't do your business any favours.

If your office has a lot of people using the internet at once, consider getting a second line dedicated to VoIP traffic to guarantee you won't have connection issues. Consider ordering a backup link as well if phone calls are central to your business.

The other technical prerequisite is a suitable router. An on-site IP PBX needs port-forwarding rules configured in your router to allow external users to access it. The router must support quality of service (QoS) rules for prioritising VoIP traffic. If it has a SIP ALG (application layer gateway), turn it off to avoid potential instability issues.

What's in the trunk?

To make your VoIP system useful, you'll need to sign up with a SIP (session initiation protocol) trunk provider that can link the public telephone network with your internal IP PBX.

It's up to you how many SIP channels you need: each VoIP call uses one channel, so check the number of staff using their phones during the busiest periods to determine how many you need.

Don't forget that callers on hold and queued calls still consume a SIP channel - and you may have mobile users running VoIP software on their smartphones to consider as well. If you're still unsure, a good rule of thumb for moderate phone usage is one SIP channel for every three users.

While there is a large range of providers to choose from, it's important to check their pricing schemes as these can vary widely. Ensure that you can upgrade easily, or even downgrade, the number of channels purchased.

Don't forget to check that you can have local phone numbers assigned to your SIP trunk, and find out if you can have multiple numbers, which your IP PBX can then route through to different extensions.

On-site or hosted

If you decide to install an on-site IP PBX system, don't be tempted to take shortcuts. VoIP is a mature technology, but there are several pieces to the puzzle that all need to be properly configured before they will talk to each other.

Treat the switch as a fully documented, fully funded IT project, and host your PBX on server-grade hardware dedicated to only this task. While this may not seem technically necessary, don't forget that you're creating a single point of failure that will take your entire VoIP system down if there's any conflict with other services running on the same host, or if it goes belly up.

Another important tip is to never configure an IP PBX to use a dynamically assigned IP address. These can change at any time, and if yours does then all your port-forwarding rules will fail, and your IP phones will no longer be able to access the PBX.

For smaller businesses with limited IT expertise on-site, it makes sense to consider a cloud-hosted VoIP solution instead. This will cost considerably more than running your own server, but with the right service-level agreement and support contract in place, you can avoid the danger of something going wrong and save yourself plenty of upheaval.

Hanging on the telephone

The sheer range of features offered by a VoIP PBX can be overwhelming. Before going live, set up a test system and play around with it to make sure you understand how it works.

One typical call-handling feature you might want to make use of is a "digital receptionist" to read out a menu of options: "For accounts, press 1; for sales, press 2," and so on. This exudes professionalism.

You can also set up call redirection, so that incoming calls can be automatically routed to staff who may not want their mobile number made public, or to those on the road. And when it comes time to choose handsets, there are endless options to choose from. Mobile users can also use "softphone" apps on their own phones, but these aren't always included in the IP PBX price.

A well-implemented VoIP system will save you hard cash with cheap local and international calls and give your business a professional image. Call-handling features that were previously beyond an SMB's budget can be set up cheaply and easily.

The emergence and growth of cloud-based platforms has seen a rise in businesses shifting to unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) in recent years. In fact, analyst firm Frost and Sullivan estimates that cloud-based UCaaS now boasts over 43 million users worldwide - with the user base predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23% between 2016 and 2023.

But just what is UCaaS? And how can this unified communications concept benefit the enterprise?

What is UCaaS?

Essentially, unified communications-as-a-service, or UCaaS, pulls various business communication tools together into one platform for deployment to businesses through the cloud. Falling under the "as-a-service" umbrella of cloud-based delivery models, UCaaS includes various communication methods depending on what an organisation needs, such as file-sharing, VoIP, email, text messaging and conferencing.

These various tools and services are usually bundled together and unified with one user interface (UI) that remains consistent and reliable across a range of business devices (such as laptops, smartphones and tablets).

UCaaS has two main variants: single tenancy (or virtualised) and multi-tenancy. With a single tenancy setup, on-site applications are linked using customised software, which allows customers' data to remain separated. Although this offers heightened security, it does cost more to operate. Multi-tenancy options differ in that the software is hosted in the cloud at a data centre, with all customers sharing the same platform. Some service providers offer a hybrid system for businesses that may require a balance between the two options.

Common UCaaS use cases

With the continuous rise of the cloud, UCaaS adoption has taken off in recent years, and the reasons businesses opt for this method are numerous. For starters, businesses implement this type of service to streamline communication methods between staff, which can be especially useful when employees are based in different locations or work remotely.

By integrating features such as email, video conferencing, voice calling and screen-sharing into one platform, communication is not only faster but costs less for the business. Switching could also allow organisations to provide a more consistent and satisfying customer experience by minimising communication obstacles.

UCaaS is also handy for unifying various data sources and making information available through one central hub, including pulling in data from a multitude of platforms such as Office 365, Skype for Business, Outlook, Salesforce, as well as those increasingly-important social channels.

There's the growing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend too, in which employees use their own devices in the workplace instead of a company-issued smartphone or laptop. Thanks to its all-encompassing nature, unified communications-as-a-service can help facilitate this setup or aid the transition process from more traditional practices.

Pros and cons of UCaaS

At its heart, UCaaS solutions present businesses with opportunities to improve enterprise communications and allow staff to connect to data sources faster than traditional, more intricate on-premise setups. This ultimately fosters a more collaborative workplace. Thanks to its convenience, it can also improve business-customer relations, whilst the ability to connect remotely aids problem resolution and productivity.

As with other SaaS models, platform maintenance and the need to keep pace with the latest hardware systems is also greatly reduced thanks to service providers handling these elements.

Financial savings are an attractive proposition as well, with firms able to focus on operating costs as opposed to capital investment (which is applicable to in-house systems). This adds a layer of flexibility to proceedings, with businesses able to increase or decrease software licenses as required, as opposed to investing capital to buy new hardware.

However, whilst a UCaaS solution generally offers greater convenience, some organisations may find it problematic when looking to integrate legacy systems, as outdated infrastructure may not be readily supported. As with any cloud-based service, there are also safety and data protection concerns with material being stored externally and increasingly shared.

Additionally, organisations may have to retrain staff on the new systems to help them feel confident in the new approach, whilst IT departments will be required to stay up-to-date with the latest software and technological advancements within the unified communications field.

While long-term savings may be a huge benefit, switching to a UCaaS provider may involve large initial costs when making the transition from an on-site communication system.

How to get started with UCaaS

Businesses looking make the switch to unified communications-as-a-service should first consider whether single tenancy, multi-tenancy, or a hybrid UCaaS platform best suits their needs. For example, the latter can often be beneficial for companies that wish to maintain a level of on-premise security and risk control as they make the transition to the cloud.

Choosing which vendor is also paramount in implementing a successful strategy; finding the right provider will help create the beginnings of a strong partnership in which the business' needs can be met and problems quickly solved if and when they arise. It's a relatively new marketplace, so taking the time to analyse a UCaaS firm's track record and success stories can provide crucial insight into how they may handle proceedings.

Other factors that will need to be considered include: the customisability of the platform, how the solution will enhance overall data security, as well how the platform will integrate apps already used by the business. It's also important to ensure that company-wide technology is up-to-date and compatible with the new system. This could mean investing in new end-point devices, even if the current ones are working well within the existing on-premise setup.

A good UCaaS provider will provide a detailed plan to answer these questions and aid in making the transition to cloud-based communications, allowing organisations to feel confident that their needs will be met.

It's hard to get accurate advice on which IP phone to buy. There are plenty of advice articles on the internet, but they're often vague and it's not always clear whether they're simply there to make you buy the most expensive phone. To dig beneath the details, we spoke to Nicolas Borg, product manager for 3CX and a veteran of many VoIP systems in businesses.

While some of his advice is specific to 3CX, a lot of it applies to anyone considering an IP phone. And as will become clear, he's just as keen for you to buy the right phone for your VoIP system as you will be.

SIP phones vs IP phones

First things first: what, we asked Nicolas, was the difference between SIP and IP phones. Or was that a stupid question? "It's not a stupid question! Yes, all SIP phones are IP phones, but you need to understand that there are many different VoIP protocols out there. They're like languages. So, when you're buying a SIP phone, you're buying a phone that can talk in SIP language and because 3CX has chosen SIP, you need to make sure that your chosen IP phone speaks SIP."

Do you need a hardware phone at all?

Surely, we suggested, people can get away with softphones? Isn't that why 3CX puts so much effort into the apps for Android and iOS phones? "Some people want a phone. They want to pick it up to answer it, they want to dial the numbers," said Borg. "I would reverse the question and look at it from the point of view of an administrator or the users themselves."

Borg cited the example of a 24/7 call centre where people will be sharing desks: you need to not only have a hardware phone, but make sure it supports hotdesking. Contrast that to a delivery service: "So, this guy is always in a truck or van. I would make sure I give him an app on a phone. It depends on the nature of your work and what you want from your apparatus."

Match the user's needs to the phone

This raises a wider point the need to match the phone to the specific user's requirements. If you start hunting for an IP phone, you'll be bombarded with features: colour screens; multi-way voice conferencing; dual Gigabit ports; Power-over-Ethernet (PoE); wireless versus wired; support for a dozen lines and multiple SIP accounts; HD audio; video. How do you choose what's right for your business?

"First of all, try not to buy too many different types of phones. Certainly buy phones from the same manufacturer, if you can," said Borg. "That's because administration of phones in today's world is extremely important, and often neglected. A phone is a living entity on my network. This thing can be compromised. You can have man-in-the-middle attacks, you can have eavesdropping. You need to keep this phone up to date. So maintaining many different types of phones is asking for trouble."

That doesn't mean buying one phone and giving it to every single person in the business. But it does mean that all people doing a similar type of job should have the same phone. For example, executives will benefit from a compact phone with few buttons but a clear LCD that shows them who's calling, but if you're outfitting a sales floor then you may not need an LCD at all. You might also choose PoE for flexibility of seating and to save on running costs. Take the time to understand the benefit of each feature and match it to the user case.

"Take the example of a busy guy, focusing on his work it would be good to alert him with an audio cue that says whether it's a sales call or a technical call. If for example it says tweet tweet tweet', that's his sales cue. He knows what kind of call is coming in and can prepare for it. That's how you need to think about features. How can you make your staff more productive, more efficient?"

Choosing an executive's phone

So what about specific examples: an executive may want a flashier phone than others in the office, but is there really any argument for this other than status? "The executive is on top of the chain," said Borg. "You don't want to waste his or her time with speculative calls, so you filter them. The CEO might assign a pool or people to be his first barrier, and they'll need to know exactly who's calling."

Borg points out they will also need the highest-quality audio and support for multi-way audio conferencing, and while they may not yet make video calls this is now an ever-present feature on executive-level phones. "Also, executive phones are more compact and have fewer buttons, as opposed to receptionist's phones, which would have more buttons, more lights blinking, more statuses, more notifications." Talking of which...

Choosing a receptionist's phone

"Normally, a receptionist's phone needs to be pretty pumped up," enthused Borg. "There are some receptionists who have enormous amounts of calls to make." As such, they need a way to handle all those calls and to make sure they don't transfer a call to someone who's already busy. A key weapon to handle this is a sidecar.

"If you have a company with 500 people in it, how can the receptionist see if someone's already on a call? A busy lamp field (BLF) helps, but a normal phone only has maybe seven keys or, if it's digital, you can swap between pages and get about 40. But beyond that you need more. Attach a sidecar, even two sidecars, four sidecars, and these will extend your lamps from tens to hundreds."

That doesn't mean you need to cram in features, though video probably isn't necessary, or five-way audio conferences.

Hotdesking

One of the biggest advantages of some IP phones is that users can log into them in the same way they do their computer. That's perfect for an office based on hotdesking or that operates 24/7 in shifts. "Let's say you come in at 8am," said Borg. "The phone on your desk is in neutral' mode, but once you enter your username and password, it becomes your phone. All your caller ID. All your logging. Your shortcuts. It's time for you to go home? Log out of the phone and everything is cleared. The next person is in, they have a fresh phone. That's extremely popular in call centres."

This isn't some cleverness on the part of the phone, Borg explains. "It's because the IT team has set up your profile, just like they do on your workstation. You can make incredible cost savings."

Saving costs

Which brings us to the thorny matter of paying for all of this. Let's say you've asked for a quote for phones and it's come in too high 20% above budget. How do you choose where to make your savings? And where shouldn't you compromise? "The first thing I ask our customers is What do you have now?' because what you own already can sometimes be reused," said Borg. "Don't forget, 3CX also works on a lot of legacy phones, and sometimes you only need a phone to make and take calls.

Don't be afraid to strip to the minimum feature set either. "Many small businesses don't need all these fancy features. It's just enough to hold and resume. You don't need to make a three-way audio conference, you can live without headset integration."

The cost savings don't end there. "There are things that can really cut costs. For example, look at screen size and the size of the phone. Perhaps your users want smaller phones, a smaller display. Perhaps monochrome is fine. I've been using a monochrome display on my phone and it's pretty clear I have my message indicator, my caller ID coming in, I can see everything.

"You can cut costs on energy, too. Why buy phones with a power supply when you can use PoE? It might be more expensive now, but in the long run, it will save you money. And, similarly, look for phones that can save energy. As the admin, I don't want 500 phones with bright displays that never dim."

Buying a phone specifically for 3CX Phone System

Head to www.3cx.com/sip-phones and you'll see a long list of SIP phones that 3CX recommends for its system. Is it a problem if you choose different ones? "Yes, that's going to be a problem! 3CX and the phones are in an intimate relationship it takes two to tango. We've actually seen cases where the PBX malfunctions because of unsupported phones."

So why does it matter so much? "It's a matter of language. Let's say you buy a phone designed for a proprietary PBX. How can it understand what 3CX is saying to it?"

3CX also works hard to ensure that all the phones it recommends are secure from the latest threats and work with any updates to the 3CX Phone System. "There's a guarantee behind that list that trained staff are checking firmware updates, checking for vulnerabilities, checking how well the phone behaves, to give you the best user experience."

You can also rest assured that, if a problem is found, 3CX will be in direct contact with the phone manufacturer to fix it. "I have a relationship with the manufacturers on that list. I can go and tell them, There's a problem, an LDP doesn't work, it's crashing this customer. We have to do something about it.' And you see the fixes come in the next update. If your phone isn't on that list, we can't support it. We don't have the phone, we can't test it, and who is going to update the firmware to fix the problem? We don't have the relationship so we can't fix it.

It's time to start thinking about what to look for in a VoIP system, and businesses that haven't made the switch to VoIP should be seriously considering binning their outdated analog phone systems. In the drive to deliver full-fiber broadband in the UK, OpenReach will stop selling copper products when the networking technology is available to 75% of homes and businesses on their particular exchange. At this point, it'll be retiring the analog phone network and replacing it with VoIP core networks, currently targeted for December 2025.

Your business has some breathing room, however, as OpenReach’s ‘stop sell’ procedure won't suddenly render current analog or ISDN services inoperable. Until 2025 draws to a close, these older systems will maintain their current level of functionality, albeit without any updates or improvements. 

That being said, most businesses would be wise to start thinking about what to look for in a VoIP system sooner rather than later. VoIP is widely considered a reliable product at this point, and perfectly suited to hybrid work. For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBS), there are also a huge range of budget-friendly VoIP options, and most businesses will benefit from reduced operating costs anyway if they switch. 

Furthermore, call features are getting ever more sophisticated, so if you're already using VoIP, it may be time to see if you can get a better service. 

Upgrade to an enterprise-class VoIP system

SMBs are naturally wary of big infrastructure projects but even the smallest business will find switching to VoIP a pain-free process. The range of options can be overwhelming so it's worth doing some research on what to look for in a VoIP system first. We advise against using cheap consumer-grade services as these are only designed for individual use.

Business-grade VoIP services offer a wealth of professional call features that can efficiently handle callers and ensure they are always directed to the right person. An interactive voice response (IVR) or dial plan system presents a digital front desk to customers with custom menus, and some products provide intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUI) that make it easy to create these.

Hunt groups mean never missing an incoming call again as all users assigned to them can have their phones ring together or in strict rotation. Call queues will help during busy times as they present callers with reassuring messages and on-hold music while staff dividing their working week between the office and home can use call redirection to transparently route all calls to their current location.

Video conferencing grew exponentially COVID-19 and many VoIP providers have integrated these features into their services so you don't need to pay for a separate product. Not all offer these services or are still developing them so we recommend checking them out first.

Should you install your own infrastructure?

An on-premises IP PBX will cost a lot less in the long run than a managed service and gives you full control over all voice services. It isn't a decision to take lightly though, as setting it up will require some technical knowledge as it's far from plug-and-play.

On the other hand, self-managed cloud IP PBX offer an attractive substitute on premises IP PBX by toning down the requirements for complex software and hardware installations. Aimed directly at small and micro-businesses, a solution included in this guide does exactly this, free of charge for up to ten users and offering a straightforward installation.

Whether your IP PBX resides on-site or in the cloud, however, you’ll definitely need a session initiation protocol (SIP) trunk in order to route VoIP calls across the public network. As a general rule of thumb, you should acquire one SIP channel for every three users. Prices typically correlate with the number of call lines you establish, so it’s important to bear in mind when thinking about what to look for in a VoIP system. 

To test the self-managed cloud VoIP system, we use the SIP trunk services provided by T4Com Ltd. Costs per channel start with a one-time fee of £4.85 and monthly charges also of £4.85, existing analog phone numbers can be ported across for £20 each and T4Com offers full redundancy as it owns and operates its own infrastructure which is mirrored across two data centres.

Buying a managed VoIP service

A managed VoIP service may be a better choice for SMBs with limited IT expertise. These will cost a lot more over time than a self-managed IP PBX but providers offer a wide selection of packages that include everything you need to get started. 

Many offer call plans based on the number of monthly inbound and outbound call minutes per user. Evaluate your current phone usage to make sure you get the right one and also confirm that you can easily upgrade or downgrade a plan as your demands change.

Local providers are plentiful, providing businesses with not just choice, but also a more responsive level of customer support. While some of these organizations can provide account agents to help with the change to VoIP, others can also take a further weight off businesses shoulders by offering SIP trunk services. 

Using desk phones with VoIP

When considering what to look for in a VoIP system, It’s worth noting that your staff may prefer to keep using desk phones. If that’s the case for your business then it won’t pose an issue, as there’s an impressive range of desk phones to choose from for VoIP. In our tests, we used a selection of Yealink IP phones which work on all good VoIP services. They also boast effective touchscreen and hands-free capabilities.

Alternatively, if you prefer desktop handsets, there's a good range of IP-compatible models out there too.

You may not need them though, as softphone apps are becoming ever more sophisticated and can be run on a user's desktop, laptop, or mobile where they connect directly to your VoIP service. They can be used with cheap, lightweight headsets with the best apps including support for all call-handling features and video conferencing.

Resistance to VoIP is futile and you need to think about what to look for in a VoIP system, as businesses that have yet to migrate their phone services are simply putting off the inevitable. There really is no need to wait, as this is a simple process that offers substantially lower costs and an impressive range of professional call-handling features. 

Recommended VoIP platforms

If an improved level of call-handling is what your SMB is hoping to get out of a VoIP migration, then the VoIP Unlimited Voxone might be worth a look. Not only is it affordable, but it also offers a comprehensive communications solution that’s hosted on its own dedicated network. With pretty straightforward deployment to boot, this VoIP is a strong consideration, especially considering its prices start at £15 per month. This includes 2,000 call minutes to UK landlines and 1,000 minutes to UK mobiles. Video conferencing services are also superior to those offered by VoIP Exchange and are supported by all types of Voxone clients

Gradwell Wave is the best choice for any businesses anxious about the change-over process. Simple to deploy, easy to use, and affordable, Wave offers a range of packages for VoIP solutions. There are three separate packages which support 100, 1000, and 3000 minutes respectively, though all the packages offer the same set of effective call-handling features. Gradwell Wave also offers both cloud hosting capabilities and provision for deskphone use. Yealink, Poly and Snom models are preconfigured so they link up with your account automatically.

BeroNet's gateway appliances are designed for businesses moving to VoIP that want to keep their PSTN or ISDN equipment. The VoIP GSM Gateway on review goes further as along with four integral PSTN ports it has a pair of GSM ports allowing it to route mobile voice calls and SMS over SIP.

The appliance employs a sturdy aluminium desktop box which acts as a heatsink, so it's completely silent. At the front are four PSTN ports with the two GSM ports grouped above and small push buttons to release the SIM card trays.

The gateway works with an existing IP PBX such as the 3CX Phone System or you can link it directly to a SIP trunk. We opted for the latter and used the basic web management console to manually add our VoIP Unlimited SIP trunk.

We provided a suitable name, the SIP outbound proxy and registrar addresses plus our SIP ID and password. A quick check on the VoIP Unlimited customer portal showed the gateway connected successfully and the appliance's status web page also showed the trunk link as green.

The PSTN and GSM ports must be placed in groups so they can be referenced in dial plans. For the PSTN ports, we initially added all four to the same group and selected the appropriate country dial tone from the drop down list.

There are a number of other features for port groups that help control calls. For incoming calls, the channel select' option allows the appliance to sequentially or randomly pick the next available PSTN port in the group to receive them.

Dial plans determine how inbound and outbound calls using the PSTN ports or GSM cards are handled. Each one has a source and destination so for outbound calls, we chose a PSTN port group and linked it to our SIP provider.

For inbound calls, we created a second dial plan with the source and destination reversed so anyone calling the main SIP trunk number would be directed to the next available PSTN port. Destination and source parameters are powerful tools as they can match criteria such as the number being called or the incoming phone number and route them to a specific PSTN device.

With standard PSTN phones plugged into the ports, we had no problems making and receiving calls using our SIP account. For enhanced GSM services, BeroNet also provides a free Outlook SMS plugin and an SMS-to-Mail app.

The appliance supports multiple SIP trunks and to test this we added details of our Sipgate account. We then created new port groups and dial plans where the first two PSTN ports were assigned to VoIP Unlimited and the other two to Sipgate.

Alternatively, we could use one SIP trunk for failover. From the VoIP Unlimited settings, we selected Sipgate as the failover trunk and set it to become active only if the primary trunk had gone down for so many seconds.

For call logging, the console provides a trace plus basic phone port statistics listing each dial plan along with the number of calls made and the average connected time. You can also view a list of active calls which show the call direction, the port and channel in use, the number called and the destination complete with the caller's number.

The confusing online documentation does hamper deployment but we found BeroNet's versatile VoIP GSM Gateway offers a great set of call handling features. It's reasonably priced too, making it a good choice for SMEs that want to retain investment in their existing PSTN and GSM equipment when they move to VoIP.

Verdict

The confusing online documentation does hamper deployment but we found BeroNet’s versatile VoIP GSM Gateway offers a great set of call handling features. It’s reasonably priced too, making it a good choice for SMEs that want to retain investment in their existing PSTN and GSM equipment when they move to VoIP.

Desktop appliance

Gigabit LAN

4 x RJ45 PSTN ports

2 x GSM SIM slots

External PSU

168 x 168 x 45mm (WDH)

4 x RJ45-RJ11 phone cables

2 x standard GSM aerials

1 x GSM aerial with 3 metre cable

2 year hardware warranty

Sennheiser needs no introduction to audiophiles, but it also has a burgeoning line of professional conferencing systems. The latest to join the family is its TeamConnect Wireless, which offers businesses a slick portable audio conferencing solution that can turn any room into a meeting place in minutes.

The kit comprises four chunky circular speaker/microphone stations, with one acting as a master and the other three as slaves. The concept is simple -- you use the master unit to connect to your preferred audio source and position the slaves as required, where they connect to it over DECT.

This makes TeamConnect Wireless extremely flexible, allowing it to support conferences in a wide range of room sizes without the need to move tables and chairs to accommodate a single base unit. Each station is designed to support up to six participants, so the whole package can handle up to 24 people on one call.

Tipping the scales at 4.7kg, the kit comes in a sturdy charging case which exudes the classic Sennheiser build quality we know and love. Just drop the stations into any of the receptacles, plug the case in and it'll take around ten hours to fully charge all four.

Each station has a clip-in Li-Ion battery with charging contacts on the base. Sennheiser claims these packs will last eight hours and our tests indicated this is accurate.

No power buttons are needed, as removing a station from the case automatically turns it on. Likewise, placing one back in the case turns it off.

It's easy to identify the master unit, as it's the only one that has soft-touch buttons on its upper surface for Bluetooth, USB or direct audio connections. You can link mobile devices using NFC by tapping them on its upper surface, and you can have up to three audio connections in parallel.

When a station is removed from the case, its base flashes blue and a green curved display on the upper surface gives you a quick readout on available battery capacity. The same panel is used to control volume with a finger swipe and all have big central buttons for muting their microphones.

Connecting the master unit to a Windows 10 laptop over USB took seconds, and it was recognised immediately. Skype had no problems identifying it either and provided the usual audio tools for testing and controlling microphone and speaker levels.

We were able to make and receive calls via Skype and found audio quality to be excellent. We could clearly hear callers and they reported that our voice quality was very clean.

There's only one glitch with Skype, as we couldn't use the buttons on the master unit to accept or end calls. Logitech has the same issue with its conference solutions, but created a Skype plug-in to allow its base stations to do this.

Sennheiser also includes a handy Windows app for checking USB connected devices. It'll tell you the battery status of them all and provides firmware updates tools.

NFC and Bluetooth connections using Samsung Galaxy J5 and Microsoft Lumia 640 mobiles were equally pain-free. We also paired the master with an iPad and in all cases, found audio output quality to be exceptionally clear, very warm and easily loud enough for large meeting rooms.

When a slave unit was removed from the case it took precisely 16 seconds to link with the master, allowing conferences to be extended on demand to late arrivals without any interruptions. Attendees can control volume on their slave and we found these units could be placed at least 12 metres from the master, giving us a huge area of coverage.

Sennheiser's TeamConnect Wireless means no more tripping over cables, huddling round a single base station and fighting to be heard. At a shade under 2,000 excluding VAT, it isn't cheap but it's eminently flexible, extremely well-made and highly recommended for businesses that want a professional, on-demand conferencing solution.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro issue 268

Verdict

Sennheiser's TeamConnect Wireless isn't cheap but it's eminently flexible, extremely well-made and highly recommended for businesses that want a professional, on-demand conferencing solution.

Charging carry case

1 x TC-W Master (Bluetooth 4.2, USB 2, 2.5mm audio)

3 x TC-W Slaves

4 x BA 100 Li-Ion batteries

external charging PSU

Micro-USB to USB Type A cable

2.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable

Case dimensions, 285 x 120 x 390mm (WDH)

Total weight, 4.7kgs

Dennis Publishing, IT Pro's parent company, has picked RingCentral to help it transform its business communications strategy to focus on mobility and open platform integration.

In preparation for a major shift in its business towards a more dynamic working environment, which included office relocation, Dennis began examining a number of alternatives to its inflexible legacy on-premise PBX system.

"With space being at a premium in London, and flexibility being a valued benefit for employees, we adopted 'agile working' in our new building," said Paul Lomax, CTO at Dennis.

"People still work in zones with their teams, but they need to be able to work in different spaces within the building depending on their needs, often with other members of staff. This meant we needed more than just deskphones, to free people from their desks, and give them the flexibility they need to work."

Already using Google G Suite across the organisation, Lomax and his team considered a number of options examining feature sets and ability to integrate with Dennis's other collaborative applications. "We wanted to avoid our staff becoming too deskbound, as any solution needed to work on more than just Windows and Macs as a third of our estate is not on these two platforms," he said.

Dennis picked RingCentral due to its close integration with Google, and successfully transitioned its 400 staff on the RingCentral platform. The transformation has allowed staff at Dennis - of whom up to 40% can be out of the office at any time - to become more agile.

The flexibility extended to locations around the new building, with staff able to use devices anywhere across eight floors, with just under half of calls being made using the RingCentral unified client on smartphones, and another 20% of calls being made using the Windows or Mac application on a laptop.

Lomax praised the breadth of features RingCentral offers, saying: "Being able to quickly and easily record calls has been particularly useful for our editorial teams, but the best thing about RingCentral is the ability for staff to use the device that best suits, and that is most appropriate to the job that they are doing there and then."

Just one month after full deployment, Dennis is already averaging around 5,000 calls a week with the beta Quality of Service report showing 96% of calls rated as good.

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Microsoft is discontinuing its Skype WiFi service, which offered many small businesses the option to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots when out and about.

Skype has been operating more than two million hotspots globally following its launch as Skype Credit, which launched in 2009. The app is currently available on iOS, Android, and Windows devices.

However, from 31 March, the application won't be available to download and if you're already using the app, it won't find and use hotspots any longer, meaning there's little point keeping it installed on your smartphone or tablet.

"We're retiring Skype WiFi globally so we can better focus our efforts on bringing you the best possible experience through our core Skype features," Microsoft said in an FAQ about the move.

However, it's not clear what these services are or how they will be improved to make up for the service gap. Although there's a similar service for Windows 10 devices, called Microsoft Wi-Fi, this isn't yet avalable on Android or iOS.

Customers making use of the Skype Wi-Fi service will be able to use their Skype credit for other services if they have any left over. But if they don't want to use their credit towards other services offered by the communication giant, they can approach the company for a refund.

Microsoft acquired Skype and all its services in 2011 for $8.5 billion, at which point Microsoft said it would continue support for the VoIP organisation's services, with Skype running as a subsidiary of the technology giant.

Amazon has unveiled its own Skype competitor, Amazon Chime, a video streaming service designed with business users in mind.

Part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform, Chime allows users to host or join conference calls with the promise of reliable high-quality video and audio and the ability to share content across synchronised desktops and devices.

Connecting to a call is done via a single button in the Chime app, removing the need for PIN numbers or the requirement to dial into a call, according to Amazon. A roster of users is also displayed on the app, showing who is speaking and the quality of the line they are on, giving users the ability to mute distorted callers.

"Amazon Chime delivers frustration-free meetings, allowing users to be productive from anywhere," said Gene Farrell, VP of Enterprise Applications at AWS. "And with no ongoing maintenance or management fees, Amazon Chime is a great choice for companies that are looking for a solution to meetings that their employees with love to use."

Chime includes a "noise-cancelling wideband audio" that promises to deliver crisp HD quality audio and video, regardless of the device you use to connect with. The caller roster will alert current users who have recently joined, and shared screens allow for collaboration that is synced across devices.

The app is available on iOS, Mac, Android and Windows, covering a range of feature packages and prices. At the lower end, a free version of the app is available that allows video calls "for up to two people", so it's nice to know you can call someone else.

But the real meat of the app is found in the Pro package, priced at $15 per user per month. This includes video meetings with a maximum of 100 attendees, as well as a host of features including screen sharing, remote desktop control, personalised meeting URLs and the ability to record the entire call using built-in capture software.

CIOs can integrate Chime into existing IT directories, and the service provides administrators with the tools to manage profiles and set access permissions across an organisation. "[There is] no up front investments, complicated deployment, or ongoing maintenance," according to Amazon.

Customers already include LED manufacturer Soraa, retailer Brooks Brothers, and market solutions company Connexity.

Already one of the leading players in the cloud services market, the release of Chime allows Amazon to take on the likes of Microsoft's Skype for Business and Google Hangouts, and tighten its grip on customers looking to move elsewhere.

You can try out Amazon Chime here on a 30-day trial.

Hackers could listen in on you via your VoIP phone, security researchers have warned.

By using a simple exploit taking advantage of weak default passwords, attackers can hack your VoIP phone to make and receive calls, transfer calls without your knowledge and even spy on your in-person conversations.

Security expert Paul Moore discovered the flaw after consulting on the installation of several VoIP phones.

During the process, he noticed installers and IT professionals neglecting to change the default passwords, saying that they would do "for now".

"Of course, as soon as the device burst into life, it's on to the next one," he said. "At which point, 'now' becomes a distant memory, along with any thoughts of hardening the device for use in a commercial setting."

One major problem Moore highlighted was a lack of device-level authentication.

He noted that the equipment was from well-known and trusted industry names such as Cisco, Snom and Ubiquiti UniFi, but said that although these brands are often assumed to be secure when placed behind a firewall, this is not necessarily the case.

With the help of fellow security professionals Per Thorsheim and Scott Helme, he demonstrated how easy VoIP phones are to hack.

Moore reset a Snom 320 VoIP phone to its factory default settings, and the only thing the attacker needed to do in order to gain complete control of the device was to visit a site infected with a malicious payload.

Once infected, the hacker has complete control over the phone, allowing them to block incoming calls, silently call premium-rate numbers, and secretly listen in on a user's conversations.

Moore has called for manufacturers to take better care in securing their products before sending them out into the wild.

"Vendors," he said, "if you must supply devices with 'default' credentials, disable all other functionality until a suitably-secure password is set to replace it".

He also urged IT staff to be aware of the dangers posed by any internet-connected appliance.

"If you install, use or just find yourself sat next to one of these devices," he advised, "just remember... it's basically a PC, with all the security vulnerabilities associated with them."

"Don't assume it's safe because it's running as the manufacturer intended; seek professional advice."

Office 2016 will offer real-time co-authoring, Microsoft confirmed as it sent the software's public preview live yesterday.

Users of the latest iteration of Office will be able to jointly edit a document in Redmond's full desktop version, an ability previously confined to Office 365.

The move should bring a major advantage to Microsoft over Google's Google Docs when Office 2016 is released in the autumn.

The two firms' online apps have both offered co-editing since 2013, but now Microsoft is bringing that ability to its more feature-rich desktop software.

In a blog post, Jared Spataro, general manager for the Office marketing team, wrote: "When you and your team are working in Word 2016 and/or Office online, you'll be able to see where other editors are working and what they are writingall in real-time."

The co-authoring feature will brought to various Windows desktop applications, starting with Word, he said.

Cloud

Supporting Microsoft's cloud-first, mobile-first strategy, Office 2016 will also let users create, open, edit and save files in the cloud straight from their desktops.

This means desktop Office files can be accessed from any device, anywhere building on Microsoft's partnerships with Dropbox and Box, which lets subscribers edit Office Online documents straight from their cloud storage apps.

In Office 2016, users will be able to attach files from OneDrive in Outlook and automatically configure permissions for recipients, all without leaving the email service.

Machine learning

Applications in Office 2016 will learn as you work, said Spataro, who cited new tools like Tell Me, a Word, Excel and Powerpoint feature that offers up possible actions based on a user typing what he or she wants to do.

Another example Spataro gave was Exchange tool Clutter, which uses machine learning to throw low priority emails into a clutter' folder.

Meanwhile, Bing-powered Insights finds contextual information from the web while you read a document.

Data analysis

Excel users can map their data faster with new data analysis tools like One-Click Forecasting, which creates predictions based on your inputted data.

With integrated Power Query, Excel can also be used to pull data from sources including SAP Business Objects, Hadoop, Salesforce, and the web.

It will also analyse hundreds-of-millions of rows of data, boasted Spataro, thanks to enhanced Power Pivot features.

Office 2016 public preview is now live, but not all new features are available at the moment.

"[The] Preview is still a work in progress, and while not all of the features we expect to ship in the fall are available for use now, new features will be added every month," said Spataro.

Updates at your pace

One of the most significant features Office 2016 promises to deliver is a more flexible approach to updating.

While the cloud means updates can trickle in constantly, rather than being rolled out as large, infrequent releases at certain points throughout the year, Microsoft wants to make things easier for IT departments.

Constant updates can play havoc with device-to-device compatibility, so IT managers will be able to choose to update selected machines just three times a year.

"We understand there is a need to reduce the number of feature enhancements on certain devices, especially for those being used for critical line of business solutions," said Microsoft in a blog post.

"For those devices, we are introducing the ability to receive feature updates no more than three times per year."

It will continue to roll out security updates between those cycles, it added.

Another concern for IT admins is that regular updates eat up bandwidth that business critical applications may require.

As a result, Office 2016 updates will use Microsoft's handy bit of software called Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), which lets machines download upgrades only when there's some spare bandwidth available.

Redmond said this would ensure Office is a "good citizen" on users' networks.

"Along with the previous introduction of Binary Delta Compression, BITS will also make Office updates smaller and more efficient when on the network," the firm added.

Microsoft released its first public preview of Office 2016 in March 2015, letting IT professionals and developers try it out.

While the preview doesn't encompass all the features the final product will have when it ships, Redmond told users to expect more functionality to be added month by month.

The latest software preview from the tech giant, which is currently running a popular preview on Windows 10, its next operating system, builds on Office 2015's offering in several ways.

One key feature in Office 2016 is the addition of Data Loss Protection (DLP), which was previously only available on Exchange, Outlook, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint.

"Now we're bringing these same classification and policy features to Word, Excel and PowerPoint," said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate VP for Office 365 Client Apps and Services, in a blog post.

"With these new capabilities, IT admins can centrally create, manage and enforce polices for content authoring and document sharingand end users will see policy tips or sharing restrictions when the apps detect a potential policy violation."

Redmond customers can sign up to trial Office 2016 in public preview.

Outlook

Redmond's email service benefits from a raft of updates in the preview, getting a new protocol to support Exchange/Outlook connectivity as well as multi-factor authentication.

What's more, it will take you less time to download messages and display new emails after waking your PC from hibernation, Microsoft claimed.

Office 2016's revamped Outlook should also prove to be more reliable than before, with Redmond developers building Exchange's FAST-based search engine into it.

Skype for Business

Skype for Business is now being officially rolled out, with all users to be automatically switched from Lync by the end of May.

Microsoft has now begun the official rollout of Skype for Business, which users will find in the Office 2013/Office 365 monthly update, it was revealed in a blog post.

The VoIP service formerly known as Lync was available as a technical preview in March, with the tech giant keen to iron out any last minute bugs by letting users try it out beforehand.

Lync users will have a period of time in which they can switch to and from Skype for Business in order to familiarise themselves with the new setup, with Microsoft promising a smooth transition when the communication tool becomes fully integrated into the Office productivity suite.

Anyone who has not already made the switch will be moved to Skype for Business at some point before the end of May.

The rebranded tool offers up a more richly featured version of Lync to business customers, comprising enterprise-grade security and compliance while giving control to IT, Microsoft claimed.

Its biggest plus is likely the extent of its integration with other Redmond products, and Skype for Business users can find and connect with anyone on Skype, for starters.

Perhaps more importantly, it's "built right into Office", according to Giovanni Mezgec, general manager for the Skype for Business, meaning instant messaging, voice and video calls are all features accessible inside Microsoft's productivity suite.

Lync 2013 users won't be too miffed at the update, either, with most software and hardware designed for the former product also compatible with Skype for Business.

Mezgec said 80 per cent of Microsoft's partners have been trained on the VoIP solution, so are ready to help customers implement it.

This article was originally published on 16 March 2015, but has subsequently been updated (most recently on 5 May 2015) to reflect the latest details available.

Skype, the Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service which was acquired in 2011 by Microsoft, has celebrated its 10th birthday by announcing plans to develop 3D video calling technology.

Microsoft's corporate vice president for Skype, Mike Gillett, told the BBC the company had been working to develop 3D calling technology in its labs and that the organisation knows "how to make it work".

However, he said Microsoft is currently examining the "ecosystem of devices and their capability to support 3D calling" in order to determine when such a product could be successfully brought to market.

"We've seen a lot of progress in screens and a lot of people now buy TVs and computer monitors that are capable of delivering a 3D image," said Gillett.

"But the capture devices are not yet there. As we work with that kind of technology you have to add multiple cameras to your computer, precisely calibrate them and point them at the right angle."

Skype has been considered by many as a pioneer in the VoIP space and has been lauded as such on its anniversary.

"Skype's first decade is something that internet start-ups dream of," said Mark Lewis, vice president of communication and networking at Interoute.

"Skype led the VoIP revolution becoming the long-distance voice operator of choice for savvy consumers, and then the default non-telephony voice and video communications medium for both consumers and businesses," he added.

Conversely, Rick Puskar, senior vice president of global portfolio management at Siemens Enterprise Communications, claims Skype may not have taken full advantage of its popular position.

"While Skype has revolutionised the way families and friends can communicate, cheaply and easily, worldwide, it is still seen as a B2C solution and not a B2B resource.

"The consumerisation of mobile devices has had a considerable impact on the way that we communicate in and out of work. With video conferencing and video telephony driving the trend of mobile working, it is imperative for employees to have a reliable, secure and efficient service," he said.

Telecoms research firm TeleGeography's annual state of the market report has shown that voice over IP (VoIP) technology has become the method of choice for making international voice calls.

In 2011, total international voice traffic grew 9 per cent. However, when broken down by type of technology, traditional phone-based traffic grew 3 per cent, to 317 billion minutes, while VoIP traffic grew 25 per cent, to 150 billion minutes.

This trend towards cloud-based communication was even starker in 2012, with TeleGeography estimating global traffic grew 5 per cent to 490 billion minutes, 34 per cent of which were transported as VoIP.

"While market demand for cross-border communications has not declined, hundreds of millions of consumers have discovered that they can communicate without the service of a telco," said TeleGeography.

"The share of international traffic routed via computer-to-computer VoIP services has skyrocketed. Cross-border traffic route via Skype, by far the largest provider of over-the-top' (OTT) communications service, is projected to grow by an astonishing 51 billion minutes in 2012," it added.

TeleGeography also said, while Skype is "long past its start-up phase, its traffic growth remains astonishing", estimating its international traffic to have grown by 44 per cent (51 billion minutes) in 2012. This is more than twice the volume growth achieved by all the phone companies in the world combined.

The organisation said: "Not all of Skype's traffic represents a loss for telcos. Over 40 per cent of Skype's traffic is now video, and it is likely that a meaningful share of this is new' traffic, rather than a direct replacement for a telephone call.

"However, given their enormous traffic volume, it is difficult not to conclude that at least some of Skype's growth is coming at the expense of traditional carriers. If all of Skype's on-net traffic had been routed via traditional telcos, global cross-border telephone traffic would have increased 14 per cent in 2011 and 13 per cent in 2012 in line with growth rates of a decade ago."

Younger readers might not know Buzby, British Telecom's fluffy yellow bird mascot from the company's advertising campaigns in the '70s and '80s. But although Busby and even the British Telecom brand has been replaced, BT has shown considerable capacity to reinvent itself, in the face of a rapidly changing industry.

The company's latest strategy to forestall declining revenues in its landline business is to offer voice over IP (VoIP) services, to smart phone users. The software, for Android handsets and iPhones, allows BT subscribers to use their BT landline rates for mobile calls, either over WiFi or via a mobile data connection.

Cleverly, if the call is free from a BT landline if it is included in the customer's calling bundle, for example then it is also free from the smartphone. This includes 0800 numbers, which are always free from BT lines but which, accorinding to telecoms regulator Ofcom, can cost up to 21 pence from a mobile. Depending on the calling plan, 0845 and 0870 calls can be free too. For business users calling conferencing services, this alone could make for some handy savings. You can also use the standard BT tariff for calls from abroad.

BT recommends using a Wi-Fi connection for the service, which it calls SmartTalk, but it will also work over mobile data. Users of the service would, of course, need a fairly generous data plan to avoid incurring data charges, although simple voice traffic is not especially data hungry.

Consumers might also fall foul of terms and conditions on mobile contracts. EE an attractive option for VoIP because of its 4G data speeds states in its tariff that "The Services are not to be used to gain access to the services of a third party voice over internet protocol calling provider unless permitted by the terms and conditions of Your Price Plan", although it is unclear how rigorously such clauses are enforced. Such restrictions do not apply when using a smartphone over Wi-Fi.

Voice over IP services on smartphones are not new, of course, with Skype available on Android and iOS, and other services, such as VoIP software for dedicated services using protocols such as SIP. But these services have tended to lack the ease of use of conventional mobile calling, and SIP set-up, whilst not that technically challenging, is perhaps not yet suitable for mainstream consumers.

Nor does BT have any immediate plans to make SmartTalk available for business users, although this, potentially, could be a big draw. BT still provides the overwhelming majority of business landlines in the UK, and rolling out the service to business subscribers could hit mobile operators hard. But there is nothing to stop business users linking a work smartphone to a residential BT line, if they wish.

Sadly though, although Buzby made a brief appearance as a BT mascot for the London 2012 Games, there are no long-term plans to bring him back. But at least on smartphones, we have Angry Birds

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT Pro.

Shrinking margins on calls and text messages will prompt mobile operators to turn their backs on voice services and concentrate on mobile data instead.

This is the view put forward by Andreas Bernstrm, chief executive of mobile VoIP service provider Rebtel, who told IT Pro the days when operators could make 3,000 per cent margin on a phone call are well and truly gone.

"There is lots more competition and the margins [operators] used to make on messaging and voice are just not there," he said.

I think we're going to see a faster switch to data-based business models from now on.

"At the same time, the demand for mobile data is doubling every year and they need to build out their infrastructure [to take advantage] of that."

Bernstrm said operators are already responding to this trend, but claims we can expect to see them moving out of the voice and minutes space faster than before.

"They've been holding on with gritted teeth...but I think we're going to see a faster switch to data-based business models [from them now]...and in the long-term that should prove to be a good business move for them."

Rebtel allows end users to make low cost international calls using their smartphones and PCs, and claims to be the world's second largest mobile VoIP provider after Skype.

The firm's customers can also make free mobile calls to other Rebtel users.

Bernstrm said the company's services are becoming increasingly popular with business users, particularly SMBs and start-ups, because of how cheap it is to use.

"We're considerably cheaper than Skype...and their mobile solution is a little clunkier [than Rebtel's], because it was built for PCs and then transferred to mobiles," he said.

"We can use telephone numbers and names, which is what people have stored in their [mobile] phonebooks, [whereas] Skype uses a buddy list. If I want to get in touch with someone, I need to know what their Skype ID is and that can hold [communications] up."

Bernstrm has some sympathy for its arch-rival, following its recent security scare, which prompted Skype to suspend its password reset function over concerns it could be used to by hackers to hijack users' accounts.

"We are all digital companies that are storing bits of data that can be very personal in nature...Skype is enormous, so there's always going to be a lot of interest [in hacking it]," he said.

"We encrypt our data...but we also try to hold very little information about our customers.

So, if we were hacked, there's a limit to the amount of damage that could be done," he added.

One of the downsides of the BlackBerry platform at least, from a business point of view has been the trickiness of hooking the handsets up to office phones, and of making calls over WiFi.

Rival mobile platforms, including Android, iOS and even Symbian, support industry-standard internet calling technologies. Nokia's Symbian-based business phones even came with voice over IP (VoIP) software, based on SIP, in the box.

This made setting up the handsets as mobile phone extensions as easy as downloading a few settings; some enterprising VoIP even sent out the settings as a text message. Asterisk, the open-source office phone system, works well with SIP software, especially for Android; it's possible to put together quite a comprehensive system all using free software.

BlackBerry handsets, though, for all their security and other features, have had minimal support for third-party voice applications. RIM has rolled out some large mobile extension projects with BlackBerry customers, mostly in North America. But most of these have used mobile calls to the mobile phones, rather than VoIP.

The most glaring omission, though, is a lack of BlackBerry support for Skype. RIM has a deal with Verizon Mobile, the US carrier, which allows its users to use Skype on the handsets. In the UK, 3 supports Skype on BlackBerry, but only with the most recent phones. With more businesses using Skype both to save on call charges and for ad-hoc voice and video conferencing, a lack of wider support for the technology might put smaller companies off BlackBerry phones.

RIM, though, has now responded to demands for internet phone support, but in a rather different way to most other smartphone makers. Instead of supporting Skype, or a standard SIP platform, BlackBerry phones will offer free WiFi calls, using the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service.

In some ways, this is a similar approach to that taken by Google with its Talk service (now rolled up into Google+) or Microsoft with Messenger: take an IM service and add voice, and video. But it does not provide the control and integration of a standard VoIP app.

For younger BlackBerry users, voice calls over BBM will be popular and fun; for businesses, the closed and hard to control nature of BBM may put people off. BBM, after all, achieved some notoriety for its role in the riots in the UK last year. And BBM bypasses companies' call monitoring and recording systems, which might rule out its use in fields such as healthcare, and financial services.

Small businesses that already use BlackBerry phones might well take to the technology, though, especially as a free and easy way to make calls to other people in a team. And BBM's upgrade, for all its limitation, might yet worry the mobile phone operators. Yet another way for customers to make free calls can only hurt the operators' voice revenues, and push them even further down the line of just providing a raw data "pipe".

RIM has always worked closely with the phone operators, and that partnership was very much part of its business model. BBM might be aimed at teens rather than suits, but it is just more evidence of how that relationship is changing.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT Pro.

Skype has unveiled a new service designed to help small businesses make corporate connections both locally and acround the world.

The online collaboration platform, dubbed Skype in the Workspace (SITW), has been in private beta testing for around three months, but has now been launched as a public beta.

Head of SMB marketing at Skype, Ural Cebeci, told IT Pro while people may be familiar with Skype's VOIP service at a personal level, such as communicating with friends and family abroad, there are also millions of small businesses using it.

"[Businesses are increasingly shifting online] and as part of that shift, they are replacing the tools they already have with online tools or cloud-based tools. For example Skype is replacing landline phones and that delivers cost savings," he added.

SITW is modelled on a similar service, Skype in the Classroom [SITC], which was launched a year and a half ago.

"We got some really good [results from SITC], showing how schools are using it to share class plans and, in some cases, to actually attend each other's classes. From that idea we started thinking Could we do something similar for small businesses and provide that platform to make their Skype experience much richer?'," Cebeci said.

He explained that SITW allows SMBs not only to interconnect with their customers and their partners, but to form business networks as well.

After making an initial connection via SITW, SMBs are encouraged to take the discussion onto the main Skype client using its instant messaging, and conference and video calling capabilities.

"This is really an extension of what we already do, not a departure from it. The platform provides a means of finding other people who have a similar interest and making a connection [with them], but everything else, the core communication happens within the Skype client," added Cebeci.

Those wishing to access the service can sign up via the Skype in the Workspace website using their existing Skype or LinkedIn accounts, and it is also available to new users.

Microsoft looks ready to retire its long-standing IM application Windows Live Messenger in favour Skype, the VoIP client it bought two years ago for $8.5 billion.

Live Messenger with be integrated in Skype before being withdrawn as a separate service, according to reports.

Sources told the Verge website that the rumours may be confirmed as early as next week. IT Pro contacted Microsoft for comment but at the time of writing it had not responded.

The latest version of Skype 6.0 for Windows and Mac allows users with Microsoft or Facebook IDs to log into their accounts. For the past six months or so, Microsoft has also been moving users over to its Messenger back-end - now around 80 per cent of messages now being sent through Skype.

The rumours come as Virgin Media launched its Skype alternative, dubbed SmartCall. The app will allow Virgin Media customers to make free, unlimited calls with their smartphones over a Wi-Fi connection.

"SmartCall will stretch the home telephone cord all the way to wherever you might be, whether in a coffee shop in Cornwall or on a beach in Bali," said Graeme Oxby, executive director of mobile and home phone at Virgin Media.

The company said that the only equipment users need is a Virgin Media home phone, a smartphone and a Wi-Fi connection. As standard, Virgin Media plans include unlimited free weekend calls to UK landlines and Virgin Mobiles and the app will automatically identify whether a call is included in the user's home phone talk plan.

The service will be available to hand-picked customers over the next few weeks and will launch fully in early 2013.

Smartphone users are moving away from standard text messaging and voice calls, in favour of rival instant messaging and voice apps, according to an analyst study.

Over 45 per cent of smartphone users now use an "over the top", or non-operator, instant messaging service, found Analysys Mason. And one in five now use voice over IP (VoIP) as an alternative to their mobile company's voice minutes. The analysts found that 20 per cent of mobile VoIP users used the service more than regular cellular voice minutes.

Analysys Mason monitored the behaviour of 1,000 smartphone users in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the US over a two-month period. The most popular messaging application was WhatsApp Messenger, used by just under 20 per cent of the panel. The most-used voice application was Skype, picked by 79 per cent of VoIP users, or 16 per cent of the total panel. Other VoIP services used included Viber, fring and Google Talk.

And, although only a minority of smartphone owners use VoIP today, the analysts suggested that the number of people willing to use VoIP as their main voice service is growing a trend likely to accelerate as VoIP technologies become more tightly integrated into other messaging services, or even with social networks.

"As more people use VoIP as their primary voice service, the danger for mobile operators is that they become relegated to providing secondary voice services, picking up the 30-40 per cent of calls from users contacting people outside their core calling circle," said Stephen Sale, co-author of the report. "If this occurs widely, operators' roles will be marginalised."

The move to using OTT services could also accelerate, as 4G networks roll out in the UK.

It's possible to spend an awful lot of money on a business-class conference call system, so when Invoxia told us the price of its NVX 610, we weren't all that surprised. Given that it can only be used with an iOS device, it might seem expensive at 417 inc VAT, but with prices for even modest rivals such as Polycom's SoundStation 2 Basic starting at around 300, it's actually in the right ballpark.

The Invoxia NVX 610 is far from a basic piece of kit, too. What starts out looking like a cheap iPhone dock is in fact a powerful piece of enterprise communications hardware. Slot an iOS device into the docking slot on its right-hand side and, with the help of Invoxia's free accompanying app, it turns into a desktop speakerphone, high-powered conference call system and VoIP phone all in one.

It's certainly an unusual-looking device, topped with white plexiglass and with a silver speaker grille wrapped around all four sides. A white handset plugs into a USB port at the rear and rests on top of the unit, held in position by a Toblerone-shaped rubber strip. This is held in place magnetically and six different coloured strips are supplied. Its magnets also act upon a sensor in the handset to initiate and terminate calls.

The dock on the right of the NVX 610 comes with various inserts to suit the iPhone 3, 3GS, 4, 4S and third and fourth-generation iPod touch. Beneath it is a large dial and at the rear are two USB ports, one for the handset and one for an undocked iOS device an optional mounting bracket is included for use with an iPad.

VoIP calls can only be made over Ethernet and not the iOS device's Wi-Fi connection, but the NVX 610 has two Gigabit Ethernet ports for a pass-through connection to a PC. One also supports PoE (Power over Ethernet) for use in lieu of the supplied mains adapter.

Mission control

Top-end speakerphone systems are usually festooned with buttons and lights, but that's not the case here. The only physical control is the rotary volume knob, which is also clickable for picking up and hanging up calls, plus a couple of touch-sensitive keys for muting and dialling voicemail.

Everything else dialling numbers, call management, adjusting settings and managing contacts is taken care of by the Invoxia iOS app that communicates via the dock or a Bluetooth connection

The Invoxia app looks very similar to the native iPhone telephone app, with icons to access to the recent call log, contacts, number pad and voicemail arranged along the bottom of the screen.

Set-up is very straightforward and assuming the Invoxia has already been hooked up to the network, all that's required is to select a VoIP service and provide the necessary credentials. The Invoxia app allows both SIP and Skype accounts to be used in parallel, but only supports one of each.

Performance

With a total of eight speaker drivers and microphones behind its silver grille, facing both front and back, the NVX 610 is a top performer. Voices come across loud and extremely clear, and the microphones are sensitive enough so users don't have to lean right in to make themselves heard.

With an NVX 610 at each end of the conference call, its positional audio means that two or more people are at one end of a call, the other end will hear their voices in the appropriate virtual position, making it easier to tell who is talking.

With only one NVX 610 at our disposal, we weren't able to test this feature ourselves, but it worked well when demonstrated to us by Invoxia representatives.

The handset for conducting private phone calls is top quality, too. Although the sharp edges dig into the hand a little during long conversations, the soft rubber pad around the earpiece is comfortable against the ear and audio quality is excellent a big improvement on using the iPhone on its own.

G.722, G.722.1 and SILK codecs for "HD" telephony over a network are supported, and, as a handy extra, does a reasonable job with music as well, even if it is a little lacking in the bass department.

The NVX 610 generally works well and the Invoxia app is easy to use, with obvious buttons for such call management features as hold, forwarding and merging.

All of the iOS device's native phone app and Skype contacts are shown in the app, and Skype availability can be set, too. Recent and popular calls also appear on the app's home screen for quick access and, on the whole, it's a simple, elegant, and intuitive control system that traditional, button-based devices cannot match.

Wrap up

Having sung its praises so far, however, there are a couple of annoyances to report with the NVX 610.

First, the Room setting which allows users to switch between desktop' mode (which mutes the rear speakers and mics) and conference' room mode (all speakers and mics on) is only available during calls.

Second, the built-in dock holds the iOS device at too steep an angle for comfortable use and we ended up swiping up and down our list of contacts with the side of our right thumb rather than a finger, which is hardly ideal. Still, since the iOS device-NVX 610 data connection is over Bluetooth, the dock doesn't actually need to be used.

Aside from these two issues, we do like the NVX 610, but it's a little too expensive to be used as just a desk phone (as the packaging would have us believe) and its features are only fully realised when calling another NVX 610.

However, in a small or medium-sized meeting/boardroom, its eight speakers perform extremely well, it's extremely easy to use and the high price isn't actually all that much compared to other systems of its ilk.

Verdict

The Invoxia NVX 610 is an easy-to-use all-in-one meeting room speakerphone system with some genuinely innovative features, but given that some only work with calls to other NVX 610s, it’s otherwise rather pricey for an iOS accessory.

Audio codec support: G.722, G.722.1, SILK, G.711a, G.711u, G.726

VoIP protocol support: SIP, Skype

Wireless: Bluetooth 2.1

iOS device support: iPhone 4S, 4 and 3GS; iPod touch 4th and 3rd generation

Connectivity: 2x RJ45 (PoE compatible), 2x USB, 1x 30-pin iOS dock connector

Dimensions: 310 x 114 x 69mm

BT has secured a lucrative deal with the European Parliament, which will see the telco giant provide networking under two framework contracts.

Network equipment and applications will be delivered to the EU body, alongside professional services for those products across three main sites in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.

BT will provide the technology to support a host of telecoms services, including VoIP, unified communications, videoconferencing and telepresence.

BT put together a competitive and strong offering which really stood out.

The deal has been valued at 120 million (100 million).

"BT put together a competitive and strong offering which really stood out," a representative for the European Parliament said.

"Their highly-skilled integration experts and a vendor agnostic approach should enable us to implement all communication infrastructures and services according to our Call for Tender specifications. This makes me confident that we have chosen the right partner."

The deal marks another high point for BT's Global Services division, which is responsible for a sizeable chunk of the telecoms firm's revenue.

In early 2009, the division was actually holding back BT revenue. At one stage it was reporting losses of 124 million. In 2008, BT said it would cut 10,000 jobs due to Global Services' poor performance.

Fast forward to the company results in November 2011, profits had risen 15 per cent and the division was making money thanks to some big deals.

BT has scored a number of contracts in the public sector this year, including one to become a provider for the Public Sector Network.

"Our extensive portfolio of services and our professional services capabilities were instrumental in winning these deals," Luis Alvarez, president for EMEA and Latin America at BT Global Services, said today of the European Parliament deal.

"Our consultancy and systems integration expertise is increasingly recognised in the industry. I want to thank the European Parliament for the trust they put into BT."

In the current climate of financial belt-tightening, many small businesses are replacing out-dated and expensive-to-maintain hardware phone systems with software based VoIP systems. Many opt for open source systems based on Linux and Asterisk communication server software, but there are also several Windows-based options. One of these is the SwyxExpress, a small business VoIP server aimed at the 20-user office.

On unpacking the mini-tower server, the first thing that struck us was the lightness of the case, which felt cheap. Inside was an Intel desktop board with on-board shared graphics, 2GB of memory, a 1.8GHz Intel Celeron 430 processor and a single 80GB SATA hard disk, 40GB of which is occupied by a rescue partition. This system has none of the redundancy that would be expected in a server costing this much and all of the components are cheap.

We were expecting to simply plug the system in, set up the networking and start configuring the PBX software

We were expecting to simply plug the system in, set up the networking and start configuring the PBX software. However, the initial Windows configuration had not been carried out. We had to wait whilst it went through hardware detection and a reboot, enter the supplied Windows Server 2008 R2 product key, activate Windows ourselves, and apply a slew of Windows updates, all of which took quite some time.

Although the system was set up for the UK, some software, notably Adobe Acrobat Reader, was installed in German. With the system finally fully installed and updated, we ran the SwyxWare config program, ready to start configuring our new phone system, only to experience further delays as it installed various components, including MS SQL server, and Windows Update was needed again to bring them up to date.

From this point, things became more complicated. We test using a VoIP account from a remote provider using the industry-standard Asterisk communication server. Unfortunately, configuring the Swyx server to talk to it was far more complicated than expected, especially for a system that bills itself as simple to configure.

Configuring a trunk group.

Both SwyxWare and the Asterisk server providing the service showed the trunk as down. We eventually traced the problem to the fact that our remote Asterisk server was connected via a VPN which had been set up and started after the Swyx software was already installed. Because of this, Swyx was not listening on the IP address allocated to our VPN, and so couldn't communicate via the VPN.

To get round this issue, we switched to a local Asterisk server, set up with the same test account, and re-configured SwyxWare accordingly. However the trunk failed to register with the account, and was unable to place calls until the Asterisk server was configured to authenticate the incoming connection by source address instead of by SIP registration. This got the trunk working, but only if the Swyx configuration was set to register the SIP connection with the outgoing server. If that option was de-selected, as would be normal with this form of authentication, then the trunk failed again. Trusted source address authentication of this sort is secure and stable, but requires the source to have a static IP address. This won't be an issue for most small businesses, but is worth bearing in mind.

Trunk configuration in SwyxWare

Setting up a user account and mapping it to an incoming number wasn't as complicated as the initial trunk setup, although a number of settings weren't very intuitive. For example, incoming numbers had to be added to the trunk before they could be mapped to the local user, and each user had to be set up in numerical order. Outbound calls worked immediately, but we experienced some initial difficulty connecting inbound calls - a common problem, somewhat similar related to earlier authentication issues, which is most easily solved by ensuring that your trunk server correctly identifies itself to the Swyx server.

Setting up a user account and mapping it to an incoming number wasn't as complicated as the initial trunk setup, although a number of settings weren't very intuitive.

Audio quality was choppy and somewhat disappointing - we confirmed that this was not a network issue by connecting the X-Lite softphone directly to the trunk provided by the local Asterisk server and the call quality was significantly better, making the most likely source of the choppiness either software latency or the underpowered Swyx server hardware.

We tested the Swyx VoIP system using both the SwyxIT softphone provided, and X-Lite, a free-to-download basic SIP softphone. Both were able to connect to the Swyx server without any problems. We were pleased with the supplied SwyxIT softphone application, too. It has all the features we expect from a commercial soft phone application, including easy-to-use speed dial and phonebook options. It also worked well with the existing audio devices on our PC.

Swyx also offers the P250 USB handset. It looks like a phone, but lacks a numeric keypad and plugs straight into USB port. It was recognized by the system straight away and installed itself as several USB sound devices, for ease of selection. You can choose between handset, speakerphone and headset modes. A headset can be connected via two 3.5mm jacks on the side of the device, but is not provided. There's a speaker in the base for speakerphone use, but we were annoyed to find that it remained active even when we were using handset mode.

We were pleased with the supplied SwyxIT softphone application.

The P250 seems to have been designed primarily for use with a headset, as it can't do anything without a softphone. It's all rather redundant, as there are plenty of decent USB headsets out there, as well as ones that will connect to your computer's on-board sound card, making the P250 little more than a waste of desk space. It also exhibited occasional errors when used with some soft phones, failing to work until disconnected and reconnected again: a problem we've not encountered with other USB audio devices on the same test system.

The server hardware and SwyxWare software - without any of the licences required to use it - is typically priced at around 800. However, a SwyxExpress system for an office with 20 users, requiring 8 voice channels and 1 fax channel, including the server and all necessary user licences, but not including setup or support, comes in at about 6000 ex VAT. This did not include any desk phones, USB phones or headsets.

The price is excessive by almost any standard, especially when you take into account the additional costs of setup and support, which will be required as this system is far too complex for anyone but a Swyx specialist to set up and maintain. By way of comparison, a fully-functional Asterisk-based VoIP server of similar capabilities can be had for under 600 ex VAT.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

SwyxExpress was extremely complex to configure, vastly overpriced for what it was, and not very good. It's billed as simple to configure, yet even a veteran sysadmin with both Windows and VoIP system experience would struggle with this device. There are many alternatives out there that are easier to configure and are better value.

Server spec: Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard 64-bit 1.8GHz Intel Celeron 430 Intel DG41TX motherboard 2GB DDR3 RAM 80GB SATA2 hard disk

US antitrust officials have given Microsoft their blessing to close its acquisition of VoIP firm Skype.

The green light appeared in the form of an early termination notice on the Federal Trade Commission's website.

Microsoft announced in May it was buying Skype for $8.5 billion, its biggest-ever acquisition, placing a rich bet on mobile and the Internet to try and best rivals such as Google.

Microsoft's interest in the money-losing, but popular service highlights a need to gain new customers for its Windows and Office software. Skype has 145 million users on average each month and has gained favor among small businesses.

"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world. Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world," Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer said at the time.

Moving forward, Skype will form a new business unit within the software giant, headed up by the VoIP form's former chief executive Tony Bates.

"Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers. Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype's plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate," he said.

Ballmer added: "Tony Bates has a great track record as a leader and will strengthen the Microsoft management team.

"I'm looking forward to Skype's talented global workforce bringing its insights, ideas and experience to Microsoft."

It was no surprise that someone bought Skype this week. After all, the internet telephony company has been on the market for some time.

More surprising, though, was that Microsoft turned out to be the buyer.

In business terms, this looks to be a scale, rather than a scope acquisition. Although there might be some Skype technologies Microsoft can use elsewhere, such as the Silk voice compression codec, at first glance Skype doesn't seem to add all that much to Microsoft's portfolio. The software company already has a consumer instant messaging and VoIP application (Messenger) and a business-grade unified communications system, in the form of Lync.

Lync, though, does not have the public recognition that Skype enjoys Skype is one of those brand names that, like Hoover and Google, have turned into verbs. If you ask someone with a computer whether they have Skype, it is highly likely that the answer will be yes.

But even if it is no, they will understand that you are talking about internet telephony, and tell you which application they do use Google Talk, for example, or Vonage, perhaps. Lync just does not have that level of recognition.

Microsoft, for its part, does not help users, or IT professionals, through its own confusing, and often overlapping, communications products. There is Lync (which was Office Communicator) , but there is Lync Server, (which was Microsoft Office Communications Server), and there is the consumer-grade Messenger. Adding Skype to the mix will not help here.

On the other hand, Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, is a seasoned salesman, and understands the value of a brand. In that context, $8.5bn is not a vast sum for a global, household name. And with Skype claiming 660m users, that works out at a few cents over $14 a user again, not too bad for a day's work.

What Microsoft could do, then, is use Skype as its consumer communications brand, and keep Lync for business communications. Or it could go the whole way and rebrand Lync which even a friend who is a director of an IT integrator hadn't heard of as Skype Professional. And it could certainly do worse than fuse the best functions of Messenger, Lync and Skype into a killer voice, video and IM app.

But, as some financial analysts have already suggested, the real prize might lie in the mobile space. Skype is starting to be popular on smartphones. Microsoft could improve its business features and tighten up its security and reliability.

Or it could go a step further, and integrate Skype with Windows Phone 7. Like Lync, Windows Phone is a actually rather good product, but has not yet captured the public imagination. Microsoft could embed its shiny new technology and rebrand its phone OS as "Skype Mobile".

OK, this is Microsoft, so it would probably be Skype: Powered by Windows Phone 7. But it could still work.Mr Ballmer, if you are reading this and want to discuss it further, feel free to Skype me.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT PRO.

Comments? Questions? You can email him here

Microsoft has confirmed the $8.5 billion (5 billion) purchase of Skype, making it the biggest acquisition the Redmond giant has ever made.

The Microsoft-Skype deal was announced after stories of the acquisition broke this morning, following a leak to the Wall Street Journal.

Skype will now be integrated into a variety of Microsoft offerings, including Kinect and Windows Phone 7, the Redmond giant confirmed.

Users of the VoIP service will also be connected with Lync, Outlook and Xbox Live. Details of how these connections will be made, and at what cost to the user, were not forthcoming.

"Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive (CEO).

Tony Bates, Skype's CEO, will now become president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer.

"Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers," he said.

"Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype's plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate."

Microsoft has agreed to buy Skype from an investor group led by Silver Lake, which purchased the company from eBay in 2009.

"We are excited about Skype's long-term future with Microsoft, as it is poised to become one of the world's most dynamic and comprehensive communications platforms," said Egon Durban, managing director of Silver Lake.

Prior to the Microsoft agreement, there were rumours of Skype being sold to either Facebook or Google in a deal which would have reportedly been valued at $3 to $4 billion.

Many have queried Microsoft's decision to spend such a significant amount of money on Skype a money losing firm with significant debt of around $686 million.

Others have praised the move, saying there is a place for Skype in Microsoft.

"Skype is arguably the most successful real-time social communication platform on the planet, and its $8 billion price tag means that only companies such as Microsoft have any chance of acquiring it," said Ovum principal analyst Richard Edwards.

"But is it a good fit for Microsoft's business model? Answer: Yes. It's popular, it runs on Windows PCs, and later this year it will be available on Windows Phone 7. Perhaps more importantly for the rest of us, Skype also runs on other computers, such as Mac and Linux, and mobile phones too, such iPhone and Android-based devices."

Questions have also arisen about the future of Skype on non-Windows operating systems, such as Linux and Mac OS X.

With the growing popularity of consumer oriented VoIP services, an increasing number of small businesses are using internet telephony to save money. We tested AVM's Fritz!Box Fon WLAN 7390 to see if it can make this transition easier. Though aimed at the domestic user, it has a host of features that make it ideal for the small branch or home office. The router can handle both ADSL and Ethernet WAN connections, as well having integrated Wi-Fi and support for VoIP, analogue and BRI ISDN telephony.

The 7390, as we'll refer to it, supports ADSL and VDSL connections, and can also be set to use one of the 4 LAN ports as a WAN port for connecting to a cable modem. If you already have a firewall or router that you don't want to replace, you can turn off the all routing and internet access functions on the device, leaving it to function as a client device on your network, providing telephony and NAS services.

There are four Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back, but only three are available for your local network if you're using the router in Ethernet WAN mode. There are also two USB ports, two ports for analogue phones or fax machines, a BRI port for an ISDN device such as a class 4 fax machine or small ISDN PBX, and an RJ45 socket which connects to both your ADSL line and your phone line by means of a splitter cable.

Integrated 802.11n wireless supports simultaneous dual-band connections, allowing newer devices to make use of the less crowded 5GHz band whilst still supporting older equipment using the 2.4GHz band. The USB ports allow the router to act as a NAS device, sharing access to any USB drive connected to it. There is also an internal 512MB of storage available, but that is too small to be of much use as a NAS device on its own - the space just gives the 7390 somewhere to save faxes and voicemail messages.

We tested the 7390 with AVM's Fritz!Fon MT-F DECT phone, which you'll frequently find on sale as part of a bundle with the router. The MT-F is well-designed and pleasant to use. It integrates seamlessly with the 7390 and provides some useful extra features such as the ability to switch the Wi-Fi on or off by dialling a feature code from the handset.

Initial setup and configuration was simple, even though the quick setup sheet at one point shows the German phone plugs rather than the supplied UK ones. Fortunately, it's not actually possible to connect the phone cables incorrectly.

A web-based configuration wizard makes it easy to set up the Fritzbox's key features, whether you want to use it as your router or configure it to obtain an internet connection from your existing router or modem. There are also wizards for setting up your telephony devices and configuring your telephone numbers and lines.

Once you've reached the router's main menus, the first thing you'll want to do is enable expert mode, which provides extra options in some of the menus, such as the ability to configure cable modem connections from the internet menu, instead of just the DSL and shared connection options.

The 7390's wireless setup interface provides much more information than most routers to help you get the best performance out of your wireless network. You can choose to leave all the settings up to the device, or specify them manually. It provides a full site survey for each band, displayed as an easy to interpret graph that clearly shows which channels will suffer the least interference. The graph not only showed which channels were in use by nearby devices, but also which other channels were affected by local signals or interference.

This is incredibly useful if you want to ensure a stable Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, the router's wireless performance is rather poor. In an area of dense 2.4GHz congestion, we got a maximum speed of 36.6Mbit/s, but at distances of over 10m we saw speeds drop to around 14Mbit/s. Performance on the less cluttered 5GHz frequency was significantly better, producing speeds of up to 76Mbit/s that remained fairly consistent over distance.

The router can be set to forward incoming connections to IP addresses on your network on a per-port basis, and can also set one IP address to be a DMZ host. UPnP can also be enabled to allow programs on your network to open ports as required, but was disabled by default. However, the 7390 does not have support for accounts with multiple IP addresses from your ISP. It can only forward ports from the router's own external IP address, and incoming connections cannot be filtered by source. These missing features are common in business-class routers, so their omission here is notable.

Other features include Dynamic DNS support for both predefined providers and for user defined ones, a built in print server, UPnP streaming of media on attached USB drives, QoS prioritization (which was preconfigured for VoIP traffic), call blocking, site blocking controls which can be configured on a per-computer basis for your network and remote control of the router from inside your network using iPhone and Android apps.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

Although its wireless performance is somewhat underwhelming, it's not bad enough to make us any less impressed by this router, although you might want to invest in an additional wireless access point if you want to extend a 2.4GHz network over a wide area that suffers from significant interference. For the small office requiring internet access and phone services in a single device, the Fritz!Box Fon WLAN 7390 is ideal. Simple to use and full of features, it lets you effectively handle almost all your office communications needs with a single compact device.

Product type: ADSL2+ Modem Router / Ethernet router Wired networking: 4x 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports Wireless networking: dual-band 802.11n Security: WEP (64-bit, 128-bit), WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, RADIUS Antennas: 3 internal, non-upgradeable Features: Firewall, MAC address filtering, DMZ, UPnP, DHCP server, MAC spoofing, DDNS, port forwarding, WDS support, USB device support, QoS Power consumption: 3W Part code: AVM7390