Australia is leading the rest of the globe in the adoption of converged IP communications with more than 40 percent of business executives surveyed in new research rating network convergence as a priority.

Commissioned by AT&T, the survey of 236 executives (with 39 percent based in the Asia-Pacific region) found that 26 percent of respondents had converged most or all of their corporate networks compared to a global figure of 25 percent. The survey did not state how many of the Asia-Pacific firms were based in Australia or whether they were the local arm of an international company.

AT&T"s Asia-Pacifc region covers Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, India, Philippines, Malaysia and New Zealand.

The main drivers for convergence in the region were availability (59 percent), security (58 percent) and reliability(39 percent).

AT&T managing director Jeyan Jeevaratnam said there has been a significant shift in the last 18 months from ATM and frame relay networks to IP-VPNs.

He said voice is the main application driving network convergence.

Susana Vidal, telecommunications senior analyst at industry analyst IDC, said VoIP takeup in Australia is currently about 15 percent, or one in every seven companies.

IDC"s research, which polled 300 local, small- to medium-sized enterprises, found Australia leading the region in converged communications.