VOIP and SIP News

A study has suggested that unified communications technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are helping to cut down on commuting times.

One of the beauties of VoIP is that it allows people to work remotely as they can make cheap calls from any location and be consistently accessible.

The amount of commuters in the United Kingdom is now lower than at any time in the last decade according to statistics compiled by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "After years of increasing journey times it is great to see that the number of hours spent commuting to work is finally falling."

The Labour Force Survey shows that on average British people spend just under 48 minutes getting to and from their place of work every day. However in 2006 this figure was 52 and a half minutes.

As the Internet becomes faster and VoIP communications constantly improve there is less need for employees to be at their desks in the office.

That is why between 2006 and 2008 there was a 291,000 increase in employees working from home. By working remotely the commuter travel hours were cut down by 232,000 hours of travel per day in 2008 alone.

At the same time as the study came out research by unified communications provider Cisco Systems showed that 60% of employees think it is no longer necessary for them to work from the office.