US VoIP services have topped the $20 billion mark in first half of the year.
It seems that there may have been some truth to VoIP services being an affordable alternative to traditional phone systems.
Businesses and homes have been capitalising on the internet telephone system and more growth is set for the second half of the year.
Home use is still where the majority of the revenue is coming from, with the number of subscribers growing 14% from the end of 2008 through until the first half of 2009.
Businesses are expected to get involved with VoIP more and more as unified communication grows; unifying all company correspondence.
According to TechCrunch Google has acquired skype-like VoIP venture Gizmo5 in a $30 million cash transaction.
Similar to Skype, Gizmo5 allows users to call other Gizmo users at no charge, offers cheap call rates to landlines and mobile phones and allows for SMS and Instant Messaging.
Google has not confirmed or commented on the buyout but the general consensus amongst industry experts is that the deal has indeed been done.
VoIP Watch blog author Andy Abramson considers the search giant’s acquisition a key component of its VoIP strategy. The Gizmo5 technology serves as a PSTN (public switched telephone network) link for Google allowing users to make conventional landline or mobile calls. This, combined with Google’s own Google Voice call management application and Google Talk (its voice/chat application), the path to a whole new all conquering service, “a lot more powerful than Skype” has been laid.
How exactly Google will shape its new masterpiece and what this will mean for consumers is still unclear but Abramson speculates that Google may offer a “free, ad-support phone service”, that is a service that is free and driven by advertising revenue.
Regardless of the details, VoIP is bound to change the face of telecommunications as we know it.
In-Stat expects a huge rise in the popularity of VoIP over the next four years.
In spite of many mobile operators trying to delay the development of online VoIP it is expected to create revenues of £21.3 billion by 2013. The number of users is predicted to rise to 287 million.
Reportlinker.com predicts that VoIP will have a dramatic effect on the way we use mobile phones to communicate. VoIP is no longer just a cost effective way to bypass international call rates but is developing into a sophisticated mobile application.
While some operators try to stall technological advancements in a bid to preserve revenues from international call charges, others such as WiMax and 3G have started harnessing the potential of mobile VoIP. As more operators join, this will further increase the speed and quality of technological development.
Business travelers can benefit dramatically from VoIP as an internet business solution when they are not at the office. This demand is expected to rise significantly in the next year in London, Paris and Berlin.
A great variety of VoIP headsets have been developed specifically to meet the growing demand for this up and coming technology and to provide quality and comfort to business people, professional and amateur talk-aholics alike.
No VoIP apps for iPhone just yet.
Last month, the phone giant AT&T Inc. announced that they would begin allowing iPhone owners to use VoIP calling services on its wireless network. The move came two months after the Federal Communications Commission sent letters to AT&T, Apple and Google Inc. asking why the Google Voice messaging and calling application had not been approved for use on the iPhone.
Everybody applauded this decision, but more than one month has passed by and applications such as Skype, Nimbuzz, Truphone or Fring still don’t work on the iPhone outside of Wi-Fi spots.
Those connections generally have limited mobility and therefore present less of a competitive threat to AT&T’s core wireless calling business. Nevertheless it is seemingly Apple the one who is preventing this to happen. In fact, an AT&A spokesman said: “any questions about why VoIP isn’t 3G enabled should go to Apple.”
Meanwhile Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said in an email that they are still working on the update to their development agreements in order to get VoIP apps on the App Store as soon as possible.
