Cox Business is the first multiple system cable operator to join the SIP Forum, further demonstrating the communications provider's commitment to advanced voice services. The SIP Forum's mission is to advance the adoption of SIP-based products and services through collaborative working groups with representatives from leading IP communications companies.

Cox Business launched SIP-based Cox Business VoiceManager in November, 2007. The feature-rich platform integrates existing desktop phones, PCs and wireless devices and can scale to deliver productivity, mobility, business continuity and unified messaging solutions to small businesses and large enterprises. Cox Business VoiceManager is currently available to business customers in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Oklahoma City, Okla., Omaha, Neb., and Wichita, Kan. The company plans to offer this fully hosted and managed IP telephony service in several additional markets by the end of 2008.

Cox Business' future product roadmap includes SIP trunking, a service that will allow direct links between the Cox Business IP network and SIP-enabled IP-PBXs. With SIP trunks, customers who wish to communicate with locations outside their corporate networks using VoIP can connect to service providers via existing data networks, eliminating the need for duplicate voice networks.

SIPconnect, an initiative of the SIP Forum, was designed to encourage a standards-based approach to SIP trunking. The SIPconnect Compliant program offers a unique certification to ensure interoperability among equipment manufacturers, software providers and service providers, as well as to promote further adoption of SIP as the standard for VoIP communications.

"The SIP Forum has recently reached an important milestone with the ratification of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation v1.0," said Eric Burger, chairman of the board of directors of the SIP Forum. "With the help of Cox Business, we will continue to develop critical, industry-approved recommendations that lead to better interoperability and solutions for customers."

Cox Business provides a full portfolio of voice, data and video services to more than 240,000 business customers in Cox markets across the U.S., including small businesses, multi-location enterprises, regional healthcare providers and federal, state and local government organizations. In 2007, Cox became the first multiple system cable operator to enter the top tier of U.S. business Ethernet providers, according to Vertical System Group. Cox is currently the seventh largest voice service provider in the U.S., with 2.46 million residential and business voice customers.