Siemens Communications Inc. today announced its HiPath BizIP offering, a new peer-to-peer SIP VoIP phone system that negated the need for a complex enterprise network telephone system. Conceptually, this is similar to Popular Telephony or Nimcat Networks (now part of Avaya) , but the real news here is the fact that Siemens, a traditional "big iron PBX company" is now offering a P2P phone system that doesn't require a centralized PBX - instead the intelligence is located on the "peers", i.e. the phones. Now that's Avaya and Siemens that have embraced P2P phone systems. Can the death of the big iron centralized PBX be far behind?

Also, Siemens Communications also announced announced that it would provide development-friendly, business-focused communication applications across a framework of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) standards and associated Web services interfaces. The Siemens Communications SOA initiative, which began in 2004, will ultimately encompass all key enterprise innovations and services – including past and future communication solutions.

The HiPath BizIP feature overview:

-- Helps enables low-cost calling via the Internet and ISDN.
-- Supports typical enterprise telephone services such as three-way conferencing, speed dialing, caller lists, call diversion and call swapping.
-- Includes integrated personal answering machine capabilities, with all phones working together to ensure voice mails are not lost when a phone is busy or out of order.
-- Scales to allow from two to 16 phones to be connected as a single workgroup.
-- Can be used in branch offices.
-- Provides a flexible Web tool for simple administration.
-- Includes back-up functionality between telephone terminals.
-- Has quality of service equal to a conventional telephone system.

"This solution stands out for its low investment costs, helping a small office or home office to set up a robust VoIP system without having to create a complex communication infrastructure," said Mark Straton, senior vice president of Marketing, Siemens Communications Inc. "Installation and maintenance costs are also lower because the existing LAN infrastructure is reused and peer-to-peer software helps eliminate the need for complex telephone configurations."

Communication with public voice and broadband data networks is handled by the BizIP Access Device, which helps ensure that a service provider's VoIP phone numbers can be used for Internet telephony, ISDN lines or both. The HiPath BizIP solution is pre-packaged to interoperate with low-cost session initiation protocol (SIP) services offered by operators. In addition, analog phones, fax machines and door intercoms can still be connected.