Pocock also claimed that “many vendors of VoIP” are reinforcing a perception of VoIP that is misleading.

"Corporate Australia remains unconvinced that the technology is mature enough or that it actually delivers the benefits heralded by its proponents," the article quotes.

The article also spoke to an IS manager from a not-for-profit provider of private mental health care in New South Wales who also claimed VoIP is “absolutely hype” adding that he had heard results of VoIP implementations that turned out to be “too intensive, and too fiddly". The IS manager also added that he was unaware of any organisations considering adopting VoIP.

Finally, the story went on to analyse how “fierce competition among providers of traditional telephony” was forcing providers to reduce their costs rather than be undercut by VoIP.

Gary Trewin, an account manager at Essential Utilities Corporation, said: "Only those corporations with substantial internal traffic between connected branches and offices will experience any significant benefits, financial or otherwise. Also, these benefits have to be offset by the risks inherent in adopting a new type of infrastructure."

He added that we are at least two years away from widespread adoption as there were “several more years of gestation for VoIP to go before there is sufficient takeup”.