Has VoIP Peaked?
One of the biggest developments in the telecoms industry in recent times has been the emergence of mobile VoIP technology. Although still relatively early days for the mobile Voice over IP companies such as Truphone, it certainly seems they have the capacity to mix things up in the telecoms industry. Some of the recent longer established mobile operators’ actions seem proof of this with T-Mobile recently being forced to allow the use of Truphone over its network, having previously not allowed calls to Truphone alloted numbers.
Whilst some people claim that as VoIP prices fall towards zero, this is making it a increasingly hard industry to make any substantial profit in; the increasing prevalence of cut cost ultra fast broadband and has resulted in a huge surge in the availability of free Wi-Fi. Consequently this is making mobile VoIP operators an increasingly attractive proposition for consumers. The trend in the availability of new ’smart phones’ with the ability to run mobile VoIP client software, at ever falling prices is also, it could be argued, creating a situation where mobile VoIP could really take off.
We have recently seen T-Mobile introduce their VoIP service called @home giving customers the option of paying one low monthly flat rate. However whilst the industry is finding people not entirely willing to give up their fixed phone line all together, mobile VoIP operators have no such obstacle to contend with. The seamless integration of mobile VoIP software into the functionality of mobile phones, as well as the falling cost of data-inclusive phone packages has resulted in a predictably fast growth in the mobile VoIP sector.
Currently it has been reported that there are 4 million VoIP customers in the UK, and its likely this figure will go up. How established mobile phone operators will harness this remains to be seen but the decision to force T Mobile to unblock calls to Truphone subscribers surely sends out a clear message that rather than try and resist the mobile VoIP operators, the incumbent industry monoliths must find a way of working with them.
One issue which may have an impact on the amount of subscribers of mobile Voice over IP is security, with many highly publicized incidents highlighting the vulnerabilities in making calls using VoIP. Another problem to contend with is ‘VoIP phishing’ where people are duped into giving up their personal data of their own free will after taking the ‘bait’ from a thief. This is also indicative of other VoIP security problems where unscrupulous would be thieves can tamper with the caller ID making it appear as though they are calling from their own financial institutions. Once such issues have been dealt with and fears allayed it is likely that mobile VoIP will become much more prevalent in everyday life as people take the opportunity to turn their mobiles into VoIP phones.
