Netgear Targets European VoIP Market With Sipgate Alliance

Netgear Inc. is making a big push into the European voice over IP market through an just-announced alliance with sipgate, a VoIP provider serving Great Britain, Germany and Austria.

Sipgate will offer Netgear products to its customers, starting with the TA612V Broadband Voice Adapter with Router and 2 Phone Ports. The devices provides two jacks for telephones and faxes, and two Ethernet ports to connect to the Internet and to the home network. Customized by Netgear specifically to support sipgate VoIP services, the adapter is designed to be easy to use and features an intuitive user interface, and features standard router and firewall functionality.

Netgear's Broadband Voice Adapter will be an essential part of sipgate's consumer VoIP service, allowing them to make telephone calls over the Either as a replacement or supplement to public switched telephone network (PSTN) services. Users can place calls by simply picking up an adapter-connected telephone and dialing as if it was an ordinary phone connected to the PSTN.

"We're excited at the opportunity to connect the Netgear brand, already well known in Europe for data networking, to voice services," Netgear director of Telco and Internet service provider business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Paul J. Thomas said in a statement. "The convergence of voice with data and multimedia networking through a home network promises to become the standard way that people communicate. We're happy to be working with sipgate to enable their subscribers to benefit from this convenient service today."