As VoIP emerges as the premier solution for businesses looking for a cost effective way to manage communications networks, Mobile phone carriers are finally falling into line. The initial reaction to VoIP for mobile was a blacklisting of any app that allowed connectivity with a VoIP network – mobile carriers feared a reduction in revenue if everyone switched to making calls through their own IP.

As it became apparent that such a boycott was not proving effective, carriers did a turnaround and started looking for ways to benefit from the trend towards SIP calling. Vox Communications recently announced that it has released a downloadable application for mobile VoIP for use on the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod mobile devices, allowing consumers to make mobile calls on the Vox network.

Chief Information Officer Mark Richards explained: “The VoX SIP credentials are easily delivered to Apple’s mobile devices by downloading the fring social network interface from iTunes. VoX is commencing social network media marketing to an addressable market of over 80% of the installed smart phone base, or more than 100 million devices over WiFi or 3G data connections.”

Another new mobile VoIP application has also been launched which could increase the number of VoIP service users. Voippal’s PointsPhone Mobile application can be used on a variety of Apple products including the new iPhone 4 and the iPad, and offers a full range of features including call forwarding, voicemail, and free peer-to-peer calling.

Dennis Chang, president and chief executive officer of Voippal, is thrilled that his app is now available in the Apple store: “The Apple iPhone is the world’s active leader in smart phone applications and it was important for us to start our first smart phone app with Apple,” he said.

Mobile networks are constantly expanding and upgrading to keep up with demand; Apple sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4 handsets in just three days, and Google’s Android based phone has shipped 160,000 per day for weeks. These figures encourage the adoption of mobile IP telephony solutions.

Enhanced phones and smartphones accounted for around 81 per cent of mobiles shipped last year, with 56 per cent of handset models being 3.5G-ready devices. Most of these can be used as VoIP phones as they allow calls to be made and received over the internet in addition to being compatible with more traditional mobile networks.

According to market research firm In-Stat, the projected total number of mobile VoIP users will hit 288 million by the end of 2013.

Author Bio: Andrew Wiggin is a telecommunications and business software expert specializing in hosted VoIP service solutions and mobile VoIP applications.

Category: Technology/VOIP
Brand Cialis />Keywords: business VoIP, mobile VoIP, hosted voip, hosted phone system, business phone service, hosted pbx