As voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services continue to expand their presence in the telecoms market, VoIP spam has been raised as a potential issue.

With calls made between VoIP numbers essentially free apart from the cost of running a computer, concerns have been raised that telemarketers may bombard companies with sales pitches.

But industry analyst Tan Aksoy, the managing director of VoIP provider Telappliant, has suggested that there are enough measures to ensure that firms remain free of VoIP spam.

"It is a problem but there are ways to counter it; good security and a VoIP provider that does not allow random in-bound calling, there are lots of ways of doing it," he said.

Mr Aksoy noted that the issue of VoIP spam is really one for the future as the current market penetration of VoIP means that few telemarketers have switched their attention to internet-based communications.

But firms may be advised to secure their VoIP communications systems from telemarketers before spam becomes a greater problem.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent).