The Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) is a British body representing providers of Internet Telephony services (

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

History

Officially launched in December 2004, its existing founder members are Gradwell Dotcom Ltd, Magrathea Telecommunications Limited, Telappliant, Timico Ltd, Voicenet Solutions Ltd, Voipfone and XConnect and corporate members such as BT and Gamma. ITSPA aims to promote competition and self-regulation in order to encourage the development of a flourishing and innovative VoIP industry.

Activities

As a trade association, membership is voluntary but the companies who choose to become members agree to abide by th
ITSPA code of practice
. ITSPA's main activity is in making representations on behalf of the industry to Government bodies, such as the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

, the

Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) was a Departments of the United Kingdom Government, United Kingdom government department. The department was created on 28 June 2007 on the disbanding of the Department of Trade ...

(former DTI) and

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

Quality Mark

''The enhanced version of the Quality Mark was introduced in 2016'' Members of ITSPA can apply for th
Quality Mark
, which ensures that consumers are guaranteed that the certified organisation complies with the following points #Adherence to the ITSPA Code of Practice and Best Practice Guidance documents #Evidence that their platform design is resilient and that they deliver a reliable service, which will be measured by ITSPA as 99.99% availability between 8am & 8pm Monday-Friday, using the VoIP Spear monitoring platform. #Transparent porting arrangements. #Active fraud control measures. #Evidence of access to the emergency services. #Easy to find information on complaints & dispute resolution. #Policies in place for Nuisance Calls & CLI Presentation. #Evidence of Data Protection & Retention Compliance. #Evidence of their Single Point of Contact showing that there is an easy way to contact the member with issues arising. The first

providers to gain the enhanced Quality Mark were: * Voipfone * Hello Telecom * SureVoIP * VoiceHost * Gradwell

Regulation

Policies are agreed by the ITSPA Council (on advice from the Industry Developments Working Group), a body of up to ten people selected from and representing the various interests of the membership. The Council is served by a secretariat.

ITSPA Awards

Now into its 5th year, the 2013 ITSPA Awards were held on Wednesday 6 March 2013. There are now eight award categories which provide the opportunity for all companies involved in IP telephony (whether it be a service provider, wholesaler or vendor) to participate. 2013 Award Winners #Best Consumer VoIP - Localphone #Best Business ITSP (Small Enterprise) - Voipfone #Best Business ITSP (Medium Enterprise) - Telappliant #Best Business ITSP (Corporate) - Ciptex #Best VoIP CPE - Sangoma Technologies – NetBorder Lync Express #Best VoIP Infrastructure - Metaswitch Networks – Perimeta 3.3 #Most Innovative VoIP Product - Voxhub – Voxtop Apps Platform #ITSPA Members' Pick - Mark Spencer (computer engineer) for developing

Asterisk (PBX) Asterisk is a software implementation of a private branch exchange (PBX). In conjunction with suitable telephony hardware interfaces and network applications, Asterisk is used to establish and control telephone calls between telecommunication en ...

Highly Commended #Best Consumer VoIP:

BT Group BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

#Best Business ITSP (Small Enterprise): VoiceHost #Best Business ITSP (Medium Enterprise): Voxhub #Best Business ITSP (Corporate): Timico #Best VoIP CPE: Grandstream Networks – GXP2200 Enterprise Application Phone for Android™ #Best VoIP Infrastructure: Genband – GENBAND Web Application Manager (WAM) #Most Innovative VoIP Product/Service:

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...

– OpenTouch Conversation

References

External links

ITSPA

ITSPA Quality Mark
{{DEFAULTSORT:Internet Telephony Services Providers' Association Organizations established in 1994 Telecommunications organisations in the United Kingdom Trade associations based in the United Kingdom