The SIP Forum proudly announces it has experienced a dramatic surge in membership since the beginning of 2008, with both dues-paying, corporate Full Membership and individual, “Participant” membership experiencing a 100% growth rate compared to the last quarter of 2007. Currently, the SIP Forum has 46 Full Member companies and more than 5,000 individual members from around the world.

According to Marc Robins, SIP Forum Managing Director and President of SIP Forum, “The recent surge in our membership ranks is a clear signal that the work of the Forum is resonating with equipment vendors, service providers and developers of SIP-based IP communications products and services. Indeed, one of the reasons for our recent growth is the expanding support and momentum behind the SIP Forum's SIP trunking initiative called SIPconnect, which provides an industry-approved set of rules and guidelines for accomplishing trouble-free, direct IP peering between SIP-enabled IP-PBXs and SIP-enabled VoIP service providers.”

Eric Burger, Chairman of the Board of the SIP Forum adds, “There is a growing realization within the IP communications industry that achieving interoperability among disparate products and services is key to sustained and long-term growth. In the near-term, as we continue to expand our efforts around resolving issues relating to SIP trunking, I expect many more companies to come forward and join as active Full Members. Longer term, there are obviously other areas where interoperability is a critical issue, such as in VoIP security and unified communications. The SIP Forum will continue to direct our resources in interoperability testing, profile definition, and work with the IETF and other standards bodies to ensure SIP is the multi-vendor, robust protocol of choice for communications products and services.”

"We strongly endorse the SIP Forum's effort to accelerate interoperability between service provider and enterprise networks through the SIPconnect effort," said Glenn Russell, Director of Business Services at CableLabs. "SIP Trunking is important technology that will help cable operators further expand their growing portfolio of cross platform commercial services."

"Covergence joined the SIP Forum because of its efforts to build on existing IETF standards to define a standards-based approach that will enable seamless IP peering between IP PBXs and VoIP service providers," said Ken Kuenzel, Founder and CTO, Covergence, Inc.

"We are pleased to see the breadth of companies finally coming together ensure SIP interoperability,” said Brian Peebles, Chief Technology Officer at Dialogic Corporation. “The SIP Forum has gathered the right participants to create the critical mass which will take SIP to the next level."

“We at Microsoft have long embraced SIP as an important standard and foundation for interoperability,” said Eric Swift, Senior Director of the Office Communications Group at Microsoft Corporation. “By participating in the SIP Forum, we will help drive the adoption of standards throughout the unified communications industry and make it easier for customers to tap into the benefits unified communications offers.”

"NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. recognizes the abundant potential and growth expectations of SIP technologies and is proud to be a SIP Forum Full Member,” said Jay Krauser, General Manager of Product Development at NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. “This unifying of a broad range of industry leaders, focused on the advancement of SIP Trunking through SIPconnect, workshops and SIPit interoperability testing events, is a profound approach to interpretation and simplified implementation of this emerging technology. The prospective impact and value this adds for our customers is vast."

"As a founding member, Sonus is proud to once again support the SIP Forum, sharing a common goal of making SIP-based solutions more interoperable and in turn more valuable to our customers," said Vikram Saksena, CTO of Sonus Networks. "Working to achieve this goal will benefit the further development of the telecom industry, for all involved."