IP telephone handset standards

[net_chef]

Can anyone direct me to information relating to the burgeoning IP telephony handset standards? Is there already a standards body?

One of our chief impediments to convincing folks to go with AVVID (versus the competition) is the cost of the handsets. Third party handsets that conform to a standard would be most welcome.

[lferre]

So far Cisco is working on getting its IP Telephony systems adopted, and aim at the high end primarily. IP phone should be upgraded to support MGCP instead of Skinny.

MGCP being an open standard, you should be able to source compatible (and cheap) IP phone (later).