I perceive it more like a change of regime in the communications world. The statistics say it. VoIP is already the best industry in of the last decade. the coming years will be those of change - from existing old communications paradigms to the new one, VoIP.
Already, 13% of the wireline market is for VoIP, which represents 21 million users in the US alone, the FCC released in a report (PDF). There are more details in Matthew's analysis there.
On the Mobile side of things, the numbers are astronomical. A UK-based research group predicts a growth of more than 30 in the number of mobile VoIP calling minutes - from 15 billion minutes in 2010 to 470 billion only five years later. The factor that will bring this invasive change is the proliferation of 3G and 4G wireless network standards. Juniper, on their side, predict that there will be 100 million mobile VoIP users by as early as 2012. Are you ready for the change?
It seems inevitable that VoIP will continue to grow. Why would anybody other than companies with a huge investment in traditional telephone service innovate in that space? All of the innovation is occurring on the VoIP side of the business, and there is no reason that will not continue.
Thanks for a well written article. The information presented explains why the FCC is pushing so aggressively to have VoIP regulated as a wireline service. If the FCC is successful, the competitive pricing structure for VoIP services will become tariffed and ultimately regulated by governmental bodies. While this was once necessary to introduce competition into the telecommunications space, federal supervision over VoIP services could impact growth patterns with increased consumer costs.
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