VoIP has been predicted to experience a successful growth year in 2008 as flexible options continue to enter the market.

Web analyst Phil Hill of Vocalocity noted that it is the year of the rat in 2008 according to Chinese culture, which is auspicious for the VoIP market as the rat is traditionally associated with prosperity.

"People born under the sign of the rat are considered to be energetic, versatile and able to overcome obstacles," he writes for TMCNet.

"Versatility and the ability to overcome obstacles are qualities VoIP may indeed share."

Flexible call options are seen as one major growth area for VoIP services, with a recent push towards entering the mobile phone market.

A recent Disruptive Analysis study predicted that some 250 million users will access VoIP services using 3G connections from their mobile phone by 2012.

However, business users will want to see major improvements to the security of calls and how well it can integrated into the company IP PBX systems before mobile VoIP makes a full-scale breakthrough.