The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory has been approved as the first external testing facility to pre-screen Internet telephony devices for compatibility with the services of Vonage Holdings Corp., a leading provider of broadband phone service.

At Vonage’s request, vendors will ship test-products to the UNH-IOL for analysis of their calling abilities as well as their interoperability with the multi-vendor Vonage network. Once tested at UNH-IOL, the equipment will be tested in the carrier’s own lab.

“The UNH-IOL is a well-respected test house with a strong reputation for objectivity and a high degree of technical expertise,” said Daniel Smires, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Vonage. “We’re leveraging that expertise to safeguard network interoperability and to deliver the best possible services to our customers.”

The UNH-IOL will perform the testing as a service to members of its VoIP Consortium, a collaborative testing program helping vendors, service providers and forums such as the SIP Forum and IMS Forum deliver quality, interoperable VoIP systems.

For a single annual fee, companies can join the lab’s VoIP Consortium and receive access to extensive SIP and standards compliance as well as interoperability testing. Each company receives detailed, confidential test reports pinpointing bugs and weaknesses in their devices. Vendors benefit from lowered sales barriers, streamlined R&D and QA processes and, in many cases, significantly reduced product time to market.

“It’s a given that most customers taking the plunge into VoIP have little patience for anything but toll-quality calls and constant uptime, so customer-focused service providers like Vonage have little margin for error,” said UNH-IOL Senior Engineer Lincoln Lavoie. “This test suite has been developed in the practically universal interest of quality, interoperable products.”

Additional information about the lab’s Vonage pre-qualification testing and other services can be found at the following URL: http://www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/voip/