Mobile VoIP A Goer?

Those that read my musings know well that I am skeptical that mobile VoIP is going to happen anytime soon. This is for two reasons, firstly the carriers are not interested in finding ways for customers to reduce their phone bills and secondly is this solving a problem that doesn't exist?.

At least in the US with their flat rate plans, mobile VoIP is not solving a big enough problem. Most people purchase plans that have fixed number of minutes each month and use that to accomodate their needs. This is essential for most people a flat rate plan so the issue of minutes is rather moot.

And ovum agrees with me:

"Equipment vendors have been fixated on dual mode phones as the key form of fixed-mobile convergence, but the people responsible for implementing this - the carriers - are really skeptical that the devices and solutions are ever going to be ready for prime time," says Jan Dawson, the report's author and VP of Ovum's US Enterprise Practice.

While some people think that having VoIP and cellular on a single handset is convergence, it is also clear that without a compelling reason to actually do this, Joe Public is non plus about whether or not this matters.

What people are interested in is whether their mobile experience is improved through these tools: Are there new and interesting Applications, does it solve a challenge that I have?. Does it improve integration with existing desktop tools?, does it solve a real business problem I have?.

The net is that analysts do thing that this technology will take hold but it will take some new functionality to do this. Exactly what that functionality is they do not know. Until that happens mobile VoIP will be a sideshow.

• VoIP / Convergence