UK enterprise SIP deployment - still waiting for SIP services?

UK lags the US and France in SIP deployments

Leading technology vendors have been enthusiastically promoting the benefits of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), promising that adoption of SIP-enabled infrastructure will be a gateway to a new world of low-cost, feature-rich communications. But IT leaders have remained sceptical. Will the latest generation of SIP-based products finally convince IT decision-makers of the benefits?

Network equipment maker Avaya this week unveiled its SIP-based Aura platform, claiming it would help users take control over the way they communicate. Similar promises of game-changing technology accompanied the recent announcement that communications software maker Skype was enabling its software to work with SIP-enabled PBXs.

Fundamentally, SIP-based platforms are designed to make it easier and cheaper for firms to deploy unified communications.

A SIP-based architecture allows calls to be routed over an IP data network, rather than standard public switched telephone network (PSTN). The advantages for enterprises are that many more IP-based multimedia applications can be used over the data network than can be used over traditional phone lines, and the number of users can easily be scaled up by increasing the bandwidth of the network connection.

Furthermore, SIP provides presence-management features and can enable firms to integrate their telephony systems with Microsoft's Office Communications Server technology.

However, take-up of SIP-enabled products in the UK has been slow, mainly because of a dearth of SIP services, such as video, presence or instant messaging, said Steve Blood, research vice president at IT advisory group Gartner.

"In the UK, there's not that many SIP services on offer, they're more common in the US and in France," he said.

That will persist until the majority of telecom connections are able to offer a SIP trunking service – which allows businesses with an IP PBX installed to use their internet connections to carry voice calls – routing calls to the correct location and charging accordingly.

"Frankly, it seems ridiculous to me that people are buying SIP-based IP PBXes and they can't get SIP trunking from the leading telco in the UK to actually connect them," said Ovum principal analyst Peter Hall

"BT has historically seen it as a cannibalisation issue. I'm surprised that BT hasn't already changed – it certainly will during 2009," added Hall.

Nevertheless, firms are increasingly demanding SIP capabilities in their communications technology, even if they have no plans to use it, said Hall.

"This is a feature they want to see, both on the network side through SIP trunking, and also on the terminal/handset side," he said.

However, he added that it does not follow that firms will deploy SIP technology: "It simply means that they're demanding it because everyone is regarding SIP as a must for the future. It's future-proofing technology you buy to make sure that it's SIP-compliant."