Mobile VoIP Calls Set For Explosive Growth

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone calls that are carried over mobile networks are poised for dramatic growth, with one research firm suggesting they could grow 30 fold within the next half decade. According to analysts at Juniper Research, there are currently 15 billion minutes of VoIP calls made using 3G and 4G networks. Juniper reckons that as networks become increasingly faster and more common, the number of minutes will rise to 470.6 billion.

Juniper research says that mobile VoIP has also grown because of the increasing number of handsets which support internet calls over Wi-Fi networks and using services such as Skype and Apple’s FaceTime video calling application for the iPhone.

Wi-Fi based voice calls could spell disaster for the mobile phone service providers, since the calls typically earn them no revenue, and has therefore forced telecoms companies to re-examine their policies for carrying VoIP traffic or face financial losses as consumers switch from cellular talk time to lower cost Wi-Fi alternatives.

“We forecast that mobile VoIP over Wi-Fi will cost operators $5 billion globally by 2015,” said Anthony Cox, senior analyst at Juniper Research. “Wi-Fi mobile VoIP is potentially the most damaging of all VoIP traffic as it bypasses the mobile networks altogether.”

The research firm says it expects to see more mobile phone operators striking deals with VoIP service providers, as they seek to defend revenue from traditional voice calls, Mobile telcos such as Three in UK, and Verizon in the US have already come to an arrangement with Skype. Juniper says these types of deals will become increasingly common as revenue for traditional voice calls using conventional circuit switching continues its decline. Mobile phone companies will try to reach some kind of arrangement with VoIP providers, and establish partnerships which will enable them to capture some part of their traffic.

The upward trajectory of VoIP calls is widely expected to climb quickly, mainly amongst business customers, who are more likely to buy unlocked handsets with VoIP support. Models that include the Nokia E Series, and the forthcoming Cius tablet device which is being launched by Cisco.

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Demon Internet Buy out?

Scottish communication company Thus, the owners of Demon Broadband, are on the brink of a massive takeover bid from Cable & Wireless.

Thus, which grew out of the telecoms operations of Scottish Power, is currently valued at around £250 million. Cable & Wireless revealed to investors that it had made an approach to the board of Thus, whose shares then shot up by 25 per cent.

In a statement to shareholders, the company said:

“Thus is confident in its future as an independent group, which offers an attractive combination of strong growth and future cash flow generation. The Board remains focused on delivering maximum value for shareholders and will evaluate any proposal from any third party against the value that the company can deliver as an independent group.”

Cable & Wireless are the 2nd biggest telecoms provider in the UK behind British Telecom, and they will continue to prosper having just landed a £100million contract with supermarket chain Tesco.

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Vonage targets Skype 0207 customers

Vonage have reacted quickly to news that voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) provider Skype’s announcement that 0207 (central London) numbers would not be supported after December 20th by offering affected users the chance to continue using their 0207 number. The decision is reported to impact as many as 10,000 Skype users within the UK.

Vonage call plans start from £5.99 a month for unlimited calls to UK and Ireland landline calls and £7.99 for international call packages. Vonage are also in the process of relaunching their website on the back of a usability study which will make their cheap international phone calls packages easier to understand for prospective customers.

>> Visit Vonage’s website to see their cheap phone call packages

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New Look BT Home Hub Released

BT’s have updated the design of their Home Hub which is their wireless router (connecting your computer to the BT broadband enabled phone line) enabling you to provide broadband wirelessly throughout the home from a sexy looking box! The Home Hub will update itself automatically and is futureproofed as technical upgrades can be delivered more easily. The redesign also makes it even easier for you to set up so you can be online without too much fuss and surfing the net at speeds of up to 8MBps in no time.

The BT Home Hub is included with Option 3 and Option 2 (when ordered online) at no extra cost (only £30 extra with Option 1). The hub allows you to connect multiple devices (such as desktop computers, laptops, gaming consoles, and also BT Vision TV) either via a cable or without using wires – all you need is a computer with wireless capability. Internet security is catered for with a built-in pre-configured firewall, to keep hackers and other intruders out, and make sure your computer and personal files are kept safe. It is also easy to connect external devices like the BT Hub Phone (included with Option 3 at no extra cost), or your existing touchtone phone, so you can make cheap BT VoIP calls over the Internet.

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Vonage Cheap International Phone Calls

My Uncle lives in Canada but spends a lot of time travelling round the world for business and the last time I saw him he sat me down (over a few beers) and told me the next big thing that would hit the UK – VoIP. My reaction was ‘er what’s that’. Well VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol and basically means using your broadband connection to make phone calls.

“Well,” I told my uncle “I’ve been making phone calls over my broadband connection for a year or so using Skype”. Skype for the uninitiated is a software programme that enables FREE calls (including video if you have a camera) to other Skype users by plugging a headset into your computer. You can also call landlines including internationally at pretty cheap rates. Skype actually works quite well, but the call quality is very hit and miss depending on how many Skype users are online. It can be very annoying when you’re shouting “what, I can’t hear you, I’ll turn you up! I can’t turn you up. I’ll call you later!!!!” or listening to your fellow caller sounding like Cher singing “Do you believe in life after love” (I must stop using that joke when talking about Skype but it’s true!).

Anyway, my uncle says to me “that’s not true VoIP, you should try Vonage” before whispering mystically “it’s the future! You don’t need to even have your computer turned on to make calls. All you need to do is plug a regular phone into the Vonage adapter and plug that into your router and you’re good to go. It’s not VoIP in a Skype sense, it’s broadband telephony”

So I went away and did a bit of searching and took a quick look at the Vonage website, £5.99 a month for unlimited UK calls, er no thanks! Why would I want to pay a monthly fee for a service I already get for free? Cheap International landline calls - that’s why.

Cheap International Calls with Vonage

Well my uncle went back to Canada but he gave me a local phone number scribbled down on a piece of paper “what’s this?” I said. “It’s my Vonage phone number” was the reply. Now this started to raise my interest. With Vonage you can set up “virtual phone numbers” whereby people can call you at local rate even if they are the other side of the world – a useful feature if you have relatives abroad or indeed business contacts. To explain further I live in Northampton and my uncle set up a virtual phone number for Northampton so I can now call him in Canada and only pay a local rate, and the best thing is I don’t even need to be a Vonage user!

Unlimited Cheap International Calls with Vonage VoIP

OK so it currently costs me a local call rate to call my uncle, great, but I also have a lot of friends that have moved to Australia where they don’t have Vonage (currently only available in the UK and North America) and anyway I can’t ask them to purchase Vonage just so I can call them cheaply can I? Well what I can do is sign up for Vonage World Plan Two for £7.99which includes unlimited anytime calls to Australia (as well as New Zealand, UK, USA, Canada, Ireland and Germany). This means I can call Australia at anytime for any duration as part of one monthly fee. I can of course set up a Virtual Number for my mates in Australia so they can call me when they want at a cheaper rate than expensive international calls – everyones a winner!

Vonage Summary

Vonage offer excellent packages of cheap international calls for just £7.99 a month (and a local calls only package for £5.99 a month). The call quality is as good as a landline but you will obviously need a reasonably quick broadband connection and a reasonable amount of download allowance if you are to be a regular caller. A full review of Vonage will be on the blog shortly but in the meantime you can read more about Vonage cheap international calls here.

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Ofcom Press for Mandatory 999 Access on VoIP

Ofcom are pressing for common sense to prevail by making it mandatory for VoIP providers to provide access to emergency numbers including 999 by the first half of 2008. Ofcom’s proposal published recently stated that any VoIP provider that allows their subscribers to make calls to landlines as part of their VoIP package must also offer access to the emergency services via 999.

It may come as a surprise to many non VoIP users that some providers such as Skype don’t allow 999 access and indeed it is worrying that any delay in making a 999 call whilst trying to locate a mobile phone of normal landline could in fact cause fatalities. The report suggested that enabling users to call 999 would cost just 90 pence per household per year – a very small cost when you consider the life threatening implications!

Many of the true VoIP companies who offer their services as a traditional phone replacement (such as Vonage VoIP and BT Total Broadband) rather than a cheap way of calling computer to computer already allow access to such numbers through their VoIP enabled phones.

A code of practice was put in place by Ofcom in March 2007 whereby VoIP providers have to make it clear in to potential users whether or not they include acess to emergency calls as part of their service.

This is an excellent example of a regulator interjecting for the good of the consumer and can only be applauded.

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