WiMax · 3G. Wireless Communication Solutions

Wireless: Trends of VoIP via Cellphones

April 6th, 2006

Mobile operators the world over fleece their customers for making roaming calls and for making international calls. However, all this could soon change. Using popular services such as Skype, users can make international calls and talk for unlimited lengths of time, for a flat monthly fee of around $20 or less.

This has started in Europe where Italian operator 3 Italia, has introduced a VOIP service in February this year. For around 5 cents per hour – a flat monthly fee of around $18 - subscribers can call fixed-line phones in Japan, South Korea, Australia and most of Western Europe, and both fixed and mobile numbers in the United States, China, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Since it needs a broadband Internet connection, VOIP works well only on mobile phones that use high-speed third-generation networks, making the technology particularly attractive to 3 Italia, which does not have a second-generation network. But mobile VOIP is also potentially appealing to the bigger mobile phone companies that, in addition to underused 3G networks, have older networks clogged with traffic.

For several years, companies like Skype have been using VOIP to offer free calls between computers, and in the process they have stolen traffic from traditional fixed-line phone companies. In the hands of mobile phone service providers, the same technology raises the stakes. According to a report by the Boston-based consultancy Pyramid Research, $200 billion of fixed-line phone traffic could move to mobile networks in the coming years.