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VoIP is no longer a buzz item in the tech industry. Market intelligence from Infonetics (News - Alert) suggests that VoIP has become pretty conventional as far as communications technology goes, and it has cloud telephony, hosted UC and SIP trunking to thank for that status shift.

“The market for VoIP services has moved well beyond the early adopter stage to mainstream status in many developed countries. New geographic regions are opening up, and SIP trunking and hosted UC continue to heat things up, fueling growth,” reports Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research (News - Alert).

Key figures from the report dictate that SIP trunks jumped 83 percent in 2012 from the previous year, as multi-site businesses adopt SIP trunking for cost savings and flexibility, and that combined business and residential VoIP services market is forecast by Infonetics to grow to $82.7 billion in 2017.

Now, for those who need a bit of a refresher, a SIP trunk is the use of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert)) to set up communications over the Internet between a customer location and an Internet telephony service provider (ITSP), which transfers the SIP calls to the PSTN. Thanks to SIP trunking, voice and data are no longer separate connections, all calls are considered local and PSTN gateways are no longer necessary.

SIP trunking is a preferred technology thanks to its cost effectiveness and hosted services. SIP trunking technology is the perfect solution for customers who already own a phone system but want to reduce their monthly phone bill. SIP phones are used in a SIP environment and are pretty much the same thing as their VoIP phone counterparts; these are telephones that allow phone calls to be made using VoIP technology.

Of course, in order to fully benefit from the technology, the right hardware must be utilized, and that’s where Panasonic (News - Alert) steps in.

The company has a range of SIP phones designed just for SIP usage. These phones are designed with HD voice quality without consuming a lot of power. There are many models available, ranging from corded to cordless, making it possible to choose the optimal phone for each office depending on specific needs.

The smart desk phone, Panasonic’s KX-UT670 SIP phone was awarded INTERNET TELEPHONY’s 2012 Innovation Award. The model boasts six SIP accounts, a seven-inch touch display, HD voice, three-way conference call support, and a Linux-based open source operating system, to name a few features.

A SIP phone provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that mimics the appearance of a standard desktop or mobile phone. Panasonic's SIP phones are made to expand at no additional cost. They’re also easily provisioned and interoperable; therefore, customers are able to expand their communication capabilities as their needs grow. In addition to being extremely user-friendly, Panasonic SIP phones provide industry-leading voice quality and bandwidth utilization.