FAQs

• What is the H.323 Forum™?
• Who can join the H.323 Forum™?
• What benefits do H.323 members receive?
• How do I track H.323 Forum™ progress?
• What information can be submitted to the H.323 Forum™ News and Events pages?
• What is H.323 Forum™ certification program?
• What H.323 Forum™ conferences will occur?
• What about the future of H.323?

Q: What is the H.323 Forum™?

A: The H.323 Forum™ was created under IMTC (with ITU support) to address a growing industry need to promote H.323 protocol awareness. While H.323 solutions are widespread, inaccurate protocol information abounds even to this day. H.323 Forum™ provided the needed H.323 industry voice and meeting place.

Q: Who can join the H.323 Forum™?

A: The H.323 Forum™ is open to everyone. Originally, H.323 Forum membership was automatically extended to all IMTC members. There was also an H.323-only membership level. However, those separate membership structures for the H.323 Forum were ended and the Forum was opened to the public. For IMTC membership information, refer to membership for details.

Q: What benefits do H.323 members receive?

A: All members can browse the website, post H.323-related news/white papers, join the email alias, and participate in H.323 Forum™ planning activities. IMTC membership, however, provides additional benefits.

Q: How do I track H.323 Forum™ progress?

A: All H.323 Forum™ planning meetings were announced on the H.323 Forum™ Mailing List. In addition the mailing list is used to report meeting minutes, hold ongoing technical discussions threads, and announce upcoming H.323 Forum™ events. Anyone is welcome to join the mailing list where discussion still takes place.

Q: What information can be submitted to the H.323 Forum™ News and Events pages?

A: The H.323 Forum™ is interested in posting all H.323-related news including product announcements, standards status, service provider offerings, network/service deployments, etc. Refer to News and Events for details.

Q: What H.323 Forum™ conferences will occur?

A: H.323 Forum™ held some conferences addressing a full spectrum of H.323-related topics ranging from technical, marketing, services, standards, Service Provider and regulatory. In addition, it holds periodic on-line meetings addressing a specific topic of interest, for example, H.323 through Firewalls/NATs. Any future meetings, online or otherwise, will be organized and discussed through the mailing list.

Q: What about the future of H.323?

A: The H.323 Forum™ succeeded in its marketing objectives and we are pleased to say that H.323 is, as of 2009, still the most widely deployed, IP-based standard multimedia communication in the world. H.323 is widely used in videoconferencing systems around the world and we are seeing demand grow. At the end of 2006, H.323 networks carried more than 15.8% of all of the world's international voice calls and more than 65% of all international VoIP calls. (For your information, Skype accounted for 18.1% and varous other standard and non-standard protocols accounted for the last 16.7%.) H.323 is still being actively developed and deployed. However, technology does not stand still. While the H.323 standard is still being enhanced with new functionality, researchers are now looking at the next significant evolution in multimedia communications: H.325, or the "Advanced Multimedia System (AMS). H.325 is still in the very early stages.