VoIP Support Added To Wireless-Wired SMB Routers

WLAN equipment vendors Linksys and Netgear Tuesday announced wireless and wired routers with built-in voice-over-IP (VoIP) capabilities aimed at home uses and small offices. Both vendors are co-marketing with VoIP vendor Vonage to offer voice service as well as hardware. Linksys said it would offer a broadband Wireless-G router, the WRT54GP2, with two VoIP phone ports. It also will offer a wired router, the RT31P2, with two phone ports. In addition, it is offering a phone adapter that works with existing wireless and wireline broadband routers. The company said the products include quality-of-service to ensure voice quality and support Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

"Over time we believe IP networking is the future for all telephone and communications services, given its significant advantages over traditional telephone systems," Charlie Giancarlo, president of Linksys, which is a division of Cisco Systems, said in a statement.

Netgear also said it will offer a wireless router and a two-port VoIP adapter for existing routers. Netgear's equipment will be available in October and the company provided no pricing information.

The Linksys phone adapter is available now for $59 and the wired VoIP router is available for $89. The company provided no pricing for the wireless router, which it said would be available in a few weeks.