Acme Packet announce that South Korean competitive service provider SK Telink has deployed Acme Packet’s Net-Net 4500 session border controllers for use in their SK 00700 international calling and SK Speed 070 IP telephony services. The Net-Net 4500s are located at SK Telink’s access and interconnect borders and supplement existing Acme Packet SBCs that support SK Telink’s IP Centrex service.

SK Telink, a subsidiary of SK Telecom, is one of the leading operators in South Korea offering international calling services. They also offer retail VoIP services to South Korean companies and outsourced data center services for smaller IP telephony service providers. SK Telink currently services hundreds of thousands subscribers who generate hundreds of thousands calls per day from corporate VoIP endpoints.

Cbeyond announced that chief technology officer Chris Gatch has been re-elected to the Session Initiation Protocol Forum Board of Directors. The SIP Forum is an industry association composed of decision makers from leading IP companies that seeks to further the interoperability and adoption of products and services using SIP communication tools.

During previous leadership roles with the SIP Forum, Gatch engineered the transition of the SIPconnect Interface Specification, which facilitates connections between users and service providers, from Cbeyond to the SIP Forum. In 2006, a team led by Gatch released the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation establishing the first industry standard for SIP trunking between IP PBX and service provider networks. During his new term he looks forward to supporting the SIP Forum’s roll out of a major update to SIPconnect in version 1.1.

Flint Telecom has completed a Letter of Intent to acquire 100% of an additional VoIP services company providing services to small and medium enterprises in the United States. Definitive agreements will be completed by end of April and following successful completion of the necessary due diligence the transaction is expected to close in the Flint's last financial quarter on June 30, 2011.

The company being acquired is profitable with annual revenues in excess of $1.5 million. When consolidated with the other pending acquisitions, operating costs will be reduced due to shared common services and network cost reductions that are expected to improve the acquired company's net income by about a third.

Market research firm Infonetics Research this week released VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers, a market share and forecast report that includes two Business VoIP Service Provider Scorecards that will be published later this year, and an IP Centrex Provider Tracker highlighting deployments by provider, region, service, and platform.

ANALYST NOTE

“The VoIP service market weathered the economic turmoil of the last couple of years, and, with increasing customer adoption, reached $49.8 billion in 2010 (compared to $34.8 billion in 2008). While the residential services segment remains the largest of the market at 69% of total revenue, business VoIP services are growing at faster rates; a notable example: SIP trunking had a breakout year with 143% revenue growth in 2010,” notes Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.