Small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) across the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan (APeJ) are on track to invest $50 bln on telecommunications equipment and services in 2007. This is up some 5% over 2006, according to Access Markets International Partners. In 2006, only 8% of desk phones of medium businesses (MBs or companies with 100 to 999 employees) in a mature market like Australia had IP phones. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) will reduce the price, making such solutions even more affordable. As for Unified Messaging, only 16% of Australia?s MBs are utilizing this service.