VoIP to take telephony throne

IP telephony solutions will ultimately take over from fixed-line platforms as the standard way to make a phone call, Hydrapinion has said.

Traditional landline and mobile network traffic will be superseded by VoIP traffic sooner or later, according to the tech news blog.

Ian Grayson, technology journalist at Hydrapinion, said: "VoIP will become the standard for all voice calls eventually, as voice simply becomes another data stream carried over IP networks."

He explained that this trend could already be seen, with consumers beginning to switch from landline networks to mobile to take advantage of the benefits that smartphones can offer them.

Mr Grayson said that "growth in use of VoIP will accelerate the trend," as mobile VoIP apps now offer "significant" cost savings due to falling mobile data rates.

However, consumer awareness of the cost benefits of using VoIP over a 3G network is "still very low," he added.

Subscriptions to VoIP solutions grew 15 per cent in the first three quarters of 2009 to pass the 100 million milestone, broadband communications services company Point Topic recently reported.