Three key developers of Internet Protocol-based telephony held a forum Tuesday in Hong Kong to demonstrate the depth of and support for IP-based communications in Asia.

Clarent, a premier provider of IP telephony products in the world, announced the opening of its offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Internet telephony has definitely hit prime time and more than 1 billion minutes of IP telephony traffic is estimated to transmit through Clarent IP gateways worldwide this year, said Heidi Bersin, Clarent Corporation's senior vice president for corporate communications and marketing.

"Currently, we are handling over 20 million minutes each month and traffic is growing by double digits month over month," said Lea King, product director of AT&T Global Clearinghouse.

"The next wave will be in IP-based value-added applications and AT&T Global Clearinghouse will be leading the development effort to bring value to our members and this industry," King said.

With the commercial launch of its managed IP backbone network, oCen Communications, a leading Internet services provider focused on North American and Asian markets, is well-positioned to respond to Asia's strong demand for IP-based communications, said Steven Eng, chief executive officer of oCen.

"Our new network is capable of supporting up to 50 million minutes per month of carrier-grade voice and fax transmissions and other real-time and enhanced IP communications services," he said.

According to the Frost and Sullivan, an internationally recognized research firm in Silicon Valley, the market for IP telephony is expected to grow to 630 billion minutes and deliver 91 billion US dollars revenues in 2006. Of this more than 20 percent will involve the Asia Pacific region. (Xinhua)