PC mobile data use could boost VoIP phones

Take-up of IP telephony solutions could be bolstered by the growth in mobile data use by computers quadrupling over the next four years.

Technology market research company ABI Research has forecast that mobile data traffic from PC modems and routers will increase four-fold between now and 2014.

Some 2,000 petabytes, or two billion gigabytes, of mobile data will be sent and received by PCs this year. That number is expected to rise to 8,000 petabytes by 2014.

VoIP traffic currently contributes little to computer-related mobile data traffic in comparison to general web and internet access due to data usage caps and operators restrictions.

However, VoIP solutions could become a driver for PC mobile data demand over the next four years as data usage caps rise and operators begin to warm to the technology.

Jeff Orr, senior analyst of mobile devices at ABI Research, said: "This research continues to demonstrate devices such as modems and routers are driving the majority of mobile data traffic."

VoIP traffic is likely to have been boosted by the boom in mobile data use over the last 12 months.

Smartphone traffic skyrocketed between February 2009 and February 2010, increasing by 193 per cent, AdMob said recently.