VoIP Regulation

Bangladesh gets tough on illegal VoIP

Doug Mohney — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:35:14 -0500

The chief telecom regulation authority in Bangladesh will cancel the license of any Internet service provider (ISP) found running an illegal VoIP business in the country.

A "zero tolerance policy" is in effect. After raids last week, the authorities shut down one ISP and seized equipment used for the illegal activities

In February the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) issued three international gateway (IGW) licenses to companies for the purpose of routing international incoming and outgoing calls through VoIP. However, the three IGW operators can't handle the VoIP call volume being generated within and routed to the country, resulting in a booming grey market. About 25 percent of IGW calls are being routed successfully, said one source.

About 11 million minutes of calls go to and from Bangladesh every day, with 90 percent made by expatriates living around the world and calling home. With over 200 authorized ISPs in the country, a little illegal VoIP on the side is quite tempting, especially since they can charge 2.5 cents per minute - undercutting 4 cent rates charged by IGW licensees.

Bangladesh regulators have had a long-running battle to control VoIP within the country. Phone minutes are a good source of revenue for the government.

For more:
- The Daily Star reports on the coming illegal VoIP crackdown in Bangladesh

FORD: VoIP, Intercarrier compensation and parsing the Embarq petition

Doug Mohney — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:25:23 -0400

By Carl Ford

When it comes to voice and landline regulatory reform, the FCC has several petitions and actions going on simultaneously. It's easy to lump them all together, but they deal with different aspects of what it means to provide voice service. Embarq's recent petition has everything to do with intercarrier compensation.

As you know, in the history of telecom, long distance subsidized the cost of the local loop with termination charges to local terminating carriers. Before VoIP came along, the rates for these settlements were put in place. They had much more to do with regulatory objectives than real costs, both on the local loop side and on the interoffice, interLATA, International side.

The FCC had done excellent work at one point, harmonizing the International settlements rates, and many local rate plans benefited as well. It is one of the key reasons bucket of minutes pricing is available on all phones services.

Today's issue is that traffic rates for local and state termination have stayed stagnant since before the VoIP revolution. The termination charges with these local tariff rates are out of sync with the market realities today.

Whenever there is an anomaly like this, the opportunity exists for arbitrage. The traffic that is terminating into these local carriers represent more than the volume that VoIP traffic represents and includes traffic from wireless and wireline services. However, often the traffic origination is not known since it is coming based on clearinghouse and competitive carrier relations and may be deliberately masked for competitive reasons.

The Embarq petition wants all traffic to be terminated at the rates that were set before the advantages of fiber, VoIP and competition came into being. And the rate has no relevance to cost. In fact, the cost of per-minute billing systems is often considered not worth the hassle, especially if bucket of minutes pricing is applied.

The hope would be that a cohesive nationwide rate would apply based on real costs. Major carriers are advocating bill and keep and/or a nationwide rate that is in keeping with the overall market and their experience of cost recovery.

If the Embarq petition is allowed to stand, competition may again be reduced by the cost prohibitive nature of compliance with per-minute billing being applied to all carriers. Of course, the legacy carriers have these systems so the status quo will get to stay that way. The more things change, the more you get the same old POTS.

Like you, regulators see the services that "quack like a duck" and want to apply the standard rules. The issue is that the revocation of the enhanced service provider exemption lumps everything that is displayed as telecom. And given how many jurisdictions are looking for someone to tax, it is going to become burdensome.

As change comes upon us at the national level, we need to make sure that the change in pricing is not being subverted by our lack of attention.

Carl Ford is Strategic Adviser and Community Developer for FierceMarkets. His words of wisdom can be found at www.carlford.net

VON Coalition launches freedom2speak.org website

Doug Mohney — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:30:34 -0400

As a part of a larger discussion on the future of Internet communications, the VON Coalition announced the launch of www.freedom2speak.org. The new website is a combination of technology promotion and policy advocacy, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) votes on new policies and a new President is elected in two weeks.

Freedom2speak.org highlights nearly 300 new voice-enabled tools available on the Internet; columnist Carl Ford outlined the different categories in his column last week.

However, there's more than a cool apps collection offered. A list of VoIP benefits with supporting white papers is presented, headlined with "$110 billion in consumer savings." It includes assertions that a 7 percent increase in broadband adoption could stimulate the creation of 2.4 million jobs, and there's also suggested benefits for the environment and fuel cost savings through telecommunications.

At the end, we have the classic call to action. If you like your VoIP rights, the site asks you to get involved by contacting the FCC to assure a "uniform national framework for Internet communications" and to assert that per-minute fees don't belong on the Internet. The site also provides a link so you can protest Senator Ted Stevens's proposal to block voice calls without associated phone numbers. (Of course, the Senator does have another issue he's busy with at the moment...)

For more:
- Visit www.freedom2speak.org

SPOTLIGHT: UAE to liberalize VoIP regulation

Doug Mohney — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:21:48 -0400

The United Arab Emirates telecom regulator should decide by the end of year to allow international phone calls via VoIP. Currently, telecom operators can only provide domestic VoIP calls. The director general of UAE's Telecommunication Authority expected to upgrade VoIP regulation to include international calls for licensed operators by the end of the year. A plan is expected to allow local and international companies with a local presence to provide VoIP services after being licensed.

For more:
- Qatar's Peninsula says UAE may ease Net call rules

Don't be a POTS! Innovate!

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:15:35 -0400

By Carl Ford

If free is dead, how can VoIP compete?

Next week in Chicago, I am going to present on the "Apps Gap." The point of the presentation is that VoIP does not deserve its current fate. Service providers are providing traditional phone options that makes it as if they're competing with one arm tied behind their back -- how do you show presence on a POTS line?

Or they try to gain space on a $1000 computer that was not bought to replace a $10 handset. Worse yet, soft phones put a handset look and feel on the PC to really eliminate any hope the user sees innovation beyond having one less set of buttons to punch.

Innovation is out there, but you have to go looking for it. The VON Coalition has found over 600 apps listed that they categorize as "Cool Tools" (the list is not yet public, but will be soon). And the range of applications is extremely diverse, from apps where presence rules, to Instant Messaging that includes voice, video and instant communication, as well as multi-modal to PSTN connectors that connect your phone to the web - inbound and outbound.

Cool tools include apps like the ability to:

Voice enable your email or text your voice mail, or you can voice enable your blogs.
Social network voice applications and tools for political activism.
Virtual assistants to reach you anywhere around the world.
Language translation applications to help you reach others or learn their language.
Voice enabled widgets that let you abstract your communication or avatars that abstract you.
Voice enabled games and animations and services that enable accessibility.
Mobile applications for your cell phone and communications for your cameras.
Productivity tools for conferencing and collaboration and (of course)
Convergence for business on the PBX.

So talk up VoIP apps.

Use them to get people involved and thinking. Don't let your family, your neighbor and especially your congressmen think that VoIP is just POTS over the Internet. Adopt an App today and tell me about it - carl@fiercemarkets.com.

The truth is, we are in a dangerous period of regulatory concern. With economies in trouble, more taxes look like salvation to states with deficits, and VoIP that looks like POTS with a POTS tax may spoil it for enhanced services everywhere.

Regulators are looking to impose taxes regardless of company revenues and may also require for VoIP services to be connected to emergency services or supplement the cost of emergency services - even if the application is not a primary service. And these issues are not just in the US, they are worldwide.

Why is a VoIP tax this important? To gain market awareness, many applications developers have given their product away. Some intend to stay free, others are being offered as free for a limited time. If the current regulatory mindset continues, it will cost too much to offer free apps.

Thursdays, I moderate a call on the Calliflower conferencing site with Jim Kohlenberger, Executive Director of the VON Coalition. Please stop by and join us as we try to keep the Internet a voice-enabled environment.

Carl Ford is Strategic Advisor and Community Developer for FierceMarkets. His words of wisdom can be found at www.carlford.net

LG Dacom nets 1 million VoIP customers

Pete Wylie — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:52:46 -0400

South Korean telecommunications company LG Dacom announced continued success converting consumers in South Korea to its myLG070 residential VoIP play. Since launching the service in July 2007, LG has attracted 1 million subscribers, according to company figures. Adding to LG's momentum in the space, the South Korean government this month enabled a service for customers to maintain their existing telephone number while they migrate from legacy services.

LG also announced this week bullish projections on continued subscriber growth, due in no small part to the government's plan. Taking out impediments to service-switches, like maintaining the same home phone number, looks like a sure-fire win for VoIP services encouraging customers to make the switch. Korea Telecom has got around 90 percent of the South Korean landline market, so LG, the third-largest largest telco in South Korea, saw a good spot to build market share in an increasingly attractive segment with this VoIP push.

For more:
- see the article here
- for good background on the South Korea VoIP market, see the Korea Herald article here

FCC discusses new 911 VoIP rules

Doug Mohney — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:35:53 -0400

On Monday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published a notice for establishing rules on how E911 systems would handle calls from IP phones.

Enhanced 911 calls go to around 6,000 call centers - public safety answering points (PSAPs) - around the country. Under the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the FCC wants to make sure VoIP providers have access to the capabilities they need to provide both basic 911 and E911 services.

The FCC wants to make sure 911 works the same way, regardless where a call is made. The Commission also wants to make sure calls coming from mobile phones or VoIP provide "meaningful" automatic location information. It is going through with the NPRM to comply with the newly enacted "New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008."

For more:
- FCW.com reports on VoIP 911. Article

Related articles
New VoIP E911 Law gets Signed, Praised
The ultimate E911 compliance test: Dial

Pushing open VoIP in India

Doug Mohney — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:39:42 -0400

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is recommending unrestricted internet telephony for the country's Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

If implemented, prices of domestic long-distance calls are expected to drop by half, with international call pricing to fall by a fifth. ISPs are currently allowed to offer VoIP, but with certain restrictions. The new policies would enable consumers to call through the internet directly to fixed line and mobile numbers across the country and vice versa, regardless of device or connection type.

Two years ago, India permitted telecom licensees to offer unrestricted internet telephony, but none of the mobile operators have done so yet, since VoIP would drive down prices and impact average revenues per user. Mobile operators are not happy with the move, since they already have some of the lowest revenues per user in the world.

For more:
- Business Standard reports on India VoIP deregulation push

Related articles
SPOTLIGHT: VoIP in India 'On The Runway'
Illegal or not, VoIP taking root in India

Good, Tough and Timely. Revising Intercarrier Compensation

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:55:15 -0400

By Carl Ford

Examining the political landscape, it's good that the FCC is focusing on the issue of Intercarrier compensation. It's also the focus via the topic of phantom traffic, a form of arbitrage based on the ambiguities in the rules about termination based on interconnection--not the call's origination.

The existing system of Intercarrier compensation came about after the divestiture of AT&T, and it operated on assumptions about the cost of transport which were accurate for the time, but have lost relevance today.

A call placed today, as Executive Director of the VON Coalition Jim Kohlenberger points out, costs as much to go across the office as it does to go around the world. State tariffs now have lower rates for services, thanks to competition between fiber and IP. Locally, however, the price may not reflect the market.

To be clear, we are talking about rate anomalies between the jurisdictions of interstate, interlata and local. Hank Hultquist of AT&T did a great job talking about these issues in a recent podcast (Saunderslog 7/16/2008); this is not a VoIP discussion specifically. But Verizon and others have been working in hopes that the Federal Communications Commission reaffirms that VoIP is within the federal jurisdiction.

It would be inaccurate to say that this standardization has complete consensus among phone carriers. Embarq and NECA look to redefine the concept of a carrier and claim that VoIP and POTS are comparable services. However, these claims look to isolate the functions of communication. It is limiting when a service like an audioblog becomes subject to the same rules as home phone services. The funny thing is that many NECA members have benefited from the use of VoIP technology in their delivery of POTS. The adoption of IP technology by many rural carriers also has expanded the portfolio of services they offer.

From a free market perspective, the time is right to change the rules. When the cost of a phone call is approaching zero, the expense of tracking Intercarrier compensation is burdensome. It is even worse to track origination and termination based on jurisdiction in an increasingly nomadic mobile environment, particularly if the interconnected carriers dispute the data.

According to the VON Coalition, "With the right policies, VoIP enabled competition can save consumers an astounding $110 billion over the next 5 years - putting real money back into consumers' pockets through the power of competition."

The opportunity exists to ride the technology bandwagon and harness VoIP as a broadband driver; just a 7 percent increase in broadband adoption could create nearly 2.4 million more jobs per year. Enabling work at home and mobile connectivity should be part of the overall mission to provide broadband services throughout the United States.

Chairman Martin and the commissioners have the desire to lead us into a new era of access models -- an era that recognizes that POTS is a service and VoIP is a technology. The chairman has my support in his efforts, and I hope you will join me by giving him yours.

Carl Ford is Strategic Adviser and Community Developer for FierceMarkets. His words of wisdom can be found at www.carlford.net

Korean Carriers Swarm VoIP

Doug Mohney — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:12:22 -0400

Korean carriers are pushing VoIP in a big way, despite some regulatory challenges carriers want to have fixed.

Hanarotelecom, Korea's second largest fixed line phone and broadband internet provider, is scheduled to start aggressively promoting VoIP on Friday when it emerges from a 40 day "business suspension" for unlawful marketing activities.

The Korean government is expected to adopt number portability for VoIP as early as next month, a move that would benefit Hanarotelecom and others as telephony subscribers switch to cheaper VoIP services; currently, VoIP service requires a new phone number. Not helping matters is the 070 prefix used by VoIP numbers--a prefix typically associated with telemarketing pitches.

Hanarotelecom expects to gain a win with a "quadruple play" bundling its fixed line, broadband, IPTV, and VoIP offerings with SK telecom's mobile phone service, tapping into SK's 22 million customers.

LG Dacom, controlling only 1.1 percent of the fixed line market, has also seen VoIP success, bringing in more than 800,000 customers for its "myLG070" VoIP service, a 10 times increase from last year's numbers.

Analysts believe VoIP offerings will make a big difference in the competition between leased line services, with IDC Korea forecasting an annual growth of about 53 percent for the next five years.

KT, which owns more than 90 percent of the Korean fixed-line market, is worried that VoIP will cannibalize its customer pool; sales are already starting to decline in 2008.

For more:
- Korea Times reports showdown on Internet telephony

Related articles:
SPOTLIGHT: VoIP in India 'On The Runway'
Revamping VoIP Regs Down Under

New VoIP E911 Law gets Signed, Praised

Doug Mohney — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:03:26 -0400

Signed into law by President Bush last week, the "New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008" is winning praise from Vonage and others.

The new law seeks to ensure phone calls made through VoIP get the same access and protections as other carriers when hooking into 911 services, including rights of interconnection, as a commercial mobile service. States can also collect fees for 911 or E911 services from VoIP service providers so long as those fees don't exceed those imposed upon subscribers of other services.

Vonage is happy because carriers now have to treat them as an equal, while the VON Coalition gets a national plan for a "next generation" 911 system using VoIP and other technologies to provide lots of bells and whistles for emergency communications.

Of course, there's the little matter that about 50 percent of U.S. counties, boroughs and parishes do not have E911 capabilities.

For more:
- FCW.com new VoIP E-911 law report

Related articles:
The ultimate E911 compliance test: Dial
911 bill passes House

SPOTLIGHT: VoIP calls legal in Qatar; resale needs license

Doug Mohney — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:39:20 -0400

The Supreme Council for Information and Communications Technology (ictQATAR) has said the use of VoIP technology in the state of Qatar is allowed. However, the telecommunications laws on the books make it illegal for any person to provide services to the public for either a direct or indirect fee without a license from ictQATAR.

Currently, the only two VoIP licensees are Qatar Telecom and Vodafone Qatar. A "large number" of Qatar residents use VoIP to make cheaper or free international calls and it's OK to use VoIP services, but selling VoIP calls or services to either the public or businesses is a no-no without a valid license. Skype seems to fall into a gray area, with personal use OK.

The ruling hasn't shut down Internet cafes in Doha from offering phone services to the public.

For more:
- Gulf Times reports on Qatar clarification on VoIP legality

Related articles:
Living with VoIP in the Middle East
Net2Phone drops prices, gets credit for breaking Kuwait VoIP blockade

SPOTLIGHT: Grameenphone Fined for Illegal VoIP

Doug Mohney — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:12:45 -0400

The largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh will be fined around $3.64 million for illegal call termination. This is the second time this year Grameenphone has been fined for using VoIP and the largest fine to date charged against a phone company operating in the country; earlier in the year, the firm was fined $2.45 million--the second highest fine. Grameenphone officials may be fired after the payments are made to the government.

For more:
- The Daily Star reports on GrammeenPhone illegal VoIP activity

Related articles:
VoIP Costs Bangladesh Government Money
Illegal or not, VoIP taking root in India

Living with VoIP in the Middle East

Doug Mohney — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:48:19 -0400

IP telephony has been bad news for many Middle Eastern carriers, but regional operators also stand to gain from the technology, says CommsMEA reporting from VoIP World 2008 in Dubai.

With pent up demand for cheaper international calls and growing regulatory reform the across the region, the Middle East and Africa present a huge opportunity for VoIP. It doesn't hurt that there are over 130 million consumers using VoIP and international VoIP minutes already account for 21 percent of total international minutes in 2006. By 2010, VoIP minutes are expected to exceed circuit switched minutes.

Fuelling optimism in the Middle Eastern market is the rapid growth in Internet users and telephony competitive environments in Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey, Palestine and Algeria. Over the past two-and-a-half years, VoIP has captured 60 percent of the international minutes in the Bahrain market and about 40 percent of the revenues.

VoIP services offer immediate costs savings as compared to legacy technology, says one carrier, allowing incumbent operators to mitigate potential losses in a fully competitive market. Savings comes from less labor and decreased capital expenditures to maintain legacy hardware. On the other hand, a transition to VoIP can be painful for an incumbent carrier that may lose both market share and revenues. Staff reductions can also cause problems with unions.

For more:
- Living with VoIP in the Middle East by CommsMEA

Related articles:
Net2Phone drops prices, gets credit for breaking Kuwait VoIP blockade
Cape Verde, South Africa Advance VoIP

VoIP as Evidence

Doug Mohney — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:44:49 -0400

"What you say may be used against you in a court of law" has a most interesting twist when it comes to VoIP.

New York Law Journal delves into the legal implications of VoIP for corporations. A VoIP network may "unexpectedly" create a substantial quantity of stored information that could become the target of a discovery request. Add in how voice messages can be stored under a unified communications/unified messaging system, then backed up and there's plenty of room for an inquisitive and tech-savvy legal team to go digging.

Call recording also makes life interesting. Contact centers routinely record conversations for quality assurance purposes and analytics processing. Regulatory requirements in the financial and health care industries mandate call recording, so there's a lot of raw information being spooled out to hard disk.

However, processing through stored call information may not be trivial. Searches may be limited to caller ID information, recipient and date and time of call, but more sophisticated data mining to process speech requires someone to pick up the tab. Speech-to-text may provide a more rapid way to skim through massive amounts of audio data rather than the classic but cumbersome method of listening calls and/or having them transcribed for search.

For more
- New York Law Journal discusses legal implications of VoIP

Related article:
VoIP Befuddles Lawful Intercept

SPOTLIGHT: Fighting Over VoIP in Africa

Doug Mohney — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:11:02 -0400

While Botswana and Cape Verde have just legalized VoIP, they're in a relatively small club of 10 African countries that have done so.

VoIP could be the way forward to help drive the uptake of telecommunications in developing countries by driving down the cost of communications, thereby providing incentives for international businesses to increase their investments into countries. Incumbent telecommunications players, however, want to keep their monopolies and the fees that come from them.

Complicating matters are murky and ambiguous legal regulations varying from country to country. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have the most liberalized environments, clearly defining who has access to international gateways and VoIP services and how international VoIP providers can interconnect with local operators to offer truly "legal" VoIP.

For more:
- Read IT Web's review of VoIP in Africa

Related articles:
VoIP in Africa shows market forces in action
Cape Verde, South Africa Advance VoIP

SPOTLIGHT: Cape Verde, South Africa Advance VoIP

Doug Mohney — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:37:12 -0400

VoIP is heating up in Africa, both legislatively and in adoption by business users. Cape Verde intends to legalize VoIP and will license two or three international service providers offering cheap calls; PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calling will operate without any type of regulation. The country has also licensed Cabo Com, a triple play provider offering voice, Internet and IPTV services. Cabo Com will compete with CV Multimedia, the IPTV subsidiary of Portugal Telecom-owned CV Telecom.

South African businesses are taking up VoIP four years after it became legal to use outside of company networks, according to a study released last week by World Wide Worx. At the end of 2007, half of all corporations were making use of VoIP with levels expected to rise to 64 percent in 2008; most use it for least-cost routing. SME usage is around 18 percent and expected to reach 25 to 30 percent in 2008.

For more:
- Botswana and Cape Verde Legalize VoIP
- South Africa VoIP progress

Related articles:
VoIP Costs Bangladesh Government Money
VoIP in India 'On The Runway'

SPOTLIGHT: VoIP Costs Bangladesh Government Money

Doug Mohney — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:13:30 -0400

Illegal VoIP calls are costing the Bangladesh government millions of dollars per year, and the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BRTC) is trying to find ways to reduce international call termination through unlicensed sources. On average, an illegal VoIP call is costing the country about 3 cents per call, with 16 million calls a day being handled through VoIP. If all the VoIP calls are illegal, it translates to roughly $480,000 a day and potentially $175 million a year in lost revenue. While government regulators are cracking down on illegal VoIP by looking to shut down satellite downlinks, they are also looking to drive official phone call charges down to a more competitive 4 cents profit per call.

For more:
- The Daily Star Reports on Bangladesh VoIP losses

Related articles:
Net2Phone drops prices, gets credit for breaking Kuwait VoIP blockade
Illegal or not, VoIP taking root in India

Net2Phone drops prices, gets credit for breaking Kuwait VoIP blockade

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Net2Phone has dropped prices on its VoiceLine resident broadband phone service to $19 a month and is waiving all activation, equipment and shipping charges. VoiceLine provides unlimited local and long distance calling within the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. For another $15, customers can add unlimited calling to more than 60 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. Customers can even get their current phone number transferred to VoiceLine at no additional charge.

Of course, there's an "early deactivation fee" of $39.99 if you cancel service within one year of activation and a monthly enhanced service fee for "recovering costs incurred by Net2Phone" to maintain and connect a phone number with the PSTN, plus taxes and a universal service fund surge in the fine print.

Next2Phone is also getting some buzz with the lifting of an Internet telephony ban in Kuwait. About a year ago, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Communications blocked access to VoIP websites and stated cracking down on pre-paid (VoIP driven) telephony cards in order to boost the ministry's revenues (Hmm, and the price of oil is now how much?). Net2Phone is getting mentions for participating in the undermining of Kuwaiti phone rates.

For more:
- Net2Phone's announcement on lower VoIP pricing
- VoIP Lights up in Kuwait Again
- Arab Times report on reopening of Net phone sites in Kuwait.

Related articles:
VoIP competition drives African telecom prices down
90% of Irish users find VoIP cost effective

VoIP expected to be good despite global downturn

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Grant Thornton says VoIP growth will continue over the next few years despite a downturn in the global economy. G-T says there should be around $21.5 billion dollars in global VoIP revenues by 2010, with telecom and IT companies fighting over who get it and over 250 million worldwide VoIP subscribers.

Migration from fixed line to mobile and VoIP services is anticipated to increase "exponentially" over the coming years and will result in a "raft" of consolidation in the sector throughout 2008, signaling the death of traditional telephony. G-T cites the doubling of the VoIP subscriber base in 2006 and four fold in the last two years as just one reason for the change.

Large telcos are expected to make strategic acquisitions of independent software developers looking to consolidate their VoIP offerings. Incumbent operators are expected to offset declines in traditional voice revenues and retain customers by grabbing up VoIP software developers. Others snapped up in consolidation may be independent residential and enterprise ISPs and resellers.

Not everything is sunshine. Security remains a major concern, with issues including include quality of service issues, reliability, scalability and the development of industry regulation also potential bumps in the road.

For more:
- Grant Thornton release predicting VoIP Growth in 2008
- ComputerWeekly piece on VoIP Making It Through Downturn

Related articles:
Enterprise VoIP in 2008 an uphill battle
Has the time come for mobile enterprise VoIP?