VoiceCon — Skype and AudioCodes today announced that the AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway has been certified as interoperable with Skype for SIP. This will enable the majority of the world’s small and medium-sized businesses, who are still using legacy TDM PBXs and Key-Systems, to communicate more efficiently by directing their outbound calls to mobile phones and landlines around the world through Skype. It will also allow them to receive inbound calls from Skype users.

“In today’s tough economy, executives of small and medium-sized companies realize that effective communication with customers, partners and employees is a key to helping them grow their business,” said David Gurle, VP and general manager of Skype for Business. “By certifying the AudioCodes Mediant 1000 Multi-Service Business Gateway as interoperable with Skype for SIP, we are enabling businesses that are using TDM equipment to connect to the IP world and helping them save money, save time and stay ahead of the competition.”

Skype says interoperability with Skype for SIP means that small businesses can take advantage of the cost savings provided by Skype’s low-cost global calling rates when their employees call landlines and mobile phones around the world. A company can also receive inbound voice calls from any of the more than 521 million registered Skype users around the world via a global click-to-call button on its Web site.

“Partnering with Skype is an important milestone in AudioCodes’ strategy of interoperating with the leaders in the Internet communications market,” said Jeff Kahn, chief strategic officer at AudioCodes. “We are excited about Skype for SIP interoperability since it opens the market for customers to get the benefits of Skype, without replacing their existing PBX equipment.”

Meantime, it was also announced at VoiceCon that Skype for SIP is now interoperable Grandstream’s GXE502x series IP PBX and GXW gateways. Grandstream says its customers can now reap significant cost-savings by directing their outbound calls to mobile phones and landlines worldwide via Skype at very competitive rates. The company reiterated the fact that SMBs can also allow their customers and remote employees to make free inbound calls to their corporate PBX system using Skype from anywhere in the world.