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One of the most important developments in the telecoms industry in recent times has been the development of mobile VoIP technology. Although still relatively early days for the mobile Voice over IP start-ups such as Truphone, it certainly seems they have the potential to mix things up in the telecoms industry. Some of the recent incumbent mobile operators’ actions seem testament to this fact 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 a few industry commentators argue that as VoIP prices tend towards zero, this is making it a increasingly difficult industry to make any substantial profit in; the increasing prevalence of cut cost high speed broadband and has resulted in a huge increase in the availability of free Wi-Fi. As a result this is making mobile VoIP operators an increasingly attractive offer for consumers. The trend in the availability of new ’smart phones’ with the ability to run mobile VoIP client software, at ever reducing prices is also, it could be argued, creating a tipping point in the industry.

We have recently seen T-Mobile introduce their VoIP service called @home giving people the option of paying a single low monthly flat rate. However whilst the industry is finding customers uncomfortable about getting rid of their fixed phone line all together, mobile VoIP operators have no such issue to contend with. The seamless integration of mobile VoIP software into the functionality of mobile phones, as well as the falling cost of unlimited data phone packages has resulted in a predictably fast growth in the mobile VoIP industry.

At present it has been reported that there are 4 million VoIP subscribers in the UK, and the growth looks set to continue. How established mobile phone operators will take advantage of this growth is still unclear but the decision to force T Mobile to unblock calls to Truphone subscribers surely transmits a clear message that rather than try and resist the mobile VoIP operators, the long established industry monoliths must find a way of working with them.

One issue which may have an impact on the amount of subscribers of mobile VoIP is security, with many highly publicized stories highlighting the vulnerabilities in making calls using VoIP. Another problem to to confront is ‘VoIP phishing’ where people are convinced to part with their personal data voluntarily after falling for a thief’s lure. This is also indicative of other VoIP security issues where unscrupulous would be thieves can tamper with the caller ID making it appear as though they are calling from reputable financial institutions. Once such issues have been resolved and fears allayed it is likely that mobile VoIP will become will become much more integral to peoples lives as people take the opportunity to turn their mobiles into VoIP phones.