Internet Telephony Services Providers' Association

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

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 ^[1] 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 the ITSPA code of practice Archived 2012-10-13 at the Wayback Machine.

ITSPA's main activity is in making representations on behalf of the industry to Government bodies, such as the Home Office, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (former DTI) and Ofcom.

Quality Mark

The enhanced version of the Quality Mark was introduced in 2016^[2]

Members of ITSPA can apply for the Quality Mark Archived 2012-10-13 at the Wayback Machine, 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 VoIP providers to gain the enhanced Quality Mark were:^[3]

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.^[4]

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)

Highly Commended

Best Consumer VoIP: BT Group
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 – OpenTouch Conversation

References

^ "itspa.org.uk/members.shtml". Archived from the original on 2012-11-12. Retrieved 2012-10-29.
^ Maradan, Romain (2016-04-12). "ITSPA Quality Mark". Gradwell. Archived from the original on 2016-10-12. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
^ "Quality Mark - ITSPA". ITSPA. Archived from the original on 2016-11-16. Retrieved 2016-10-09.
^ "The 2013 ITSPA Awards". ITSPA. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2012.