Where is IP Telephony Headed?

Internet marketing and business transactions have evolved and adapted to the digital age. The borders between analog and digital data are slowly being blurred with the emergence of technologies like VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol. VoIP is not actually new. It's been around since the early 2000 but it was only around 2002 when its features changed into what it generally is now.

IP phone systems allow PC-to-phone or PC-to-PC calls and include features such as teleconferencing, caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting, and automatic callback (*69).As long as a user has a steady stream of Internet connection, then they can fully take advantage of the available 24 channels that makes it possible to do simultaneous calls and data transfers. It is currently one of the least expensive means of telecommuting for businesses in the US. Industry users such as small and large scale companies have stated that the main problem of IP telephony is the security risk that comes with using the Internet. But this June 2011, IP phone systems may have probably found the fix in needs to continuously and securely transfer/convert data.

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project shows that there has been an exponential increase in the use of PCs to make phone calls via applications like Skype or Yahoo Messenger. This means that there will be a steady increase in residential subscription of VoIP systems for the coming years. Businesses aren't just the main pool of users now. The need for cheaper and faster means of communicating has greatly increased the demand for smaller scale versions of IP Telephony—thus technologies like Skype or GTalk. For users in households, phone systems are usually offered without ISP but now, the increased demand has given rise to what we all recognize as a mixed Internet data and voice system.

Industry developers have also foreseen the trend of mobile VoIP use with the trend of tablets and smart phones.IP telephony has been poking around the development of mobile applications that support the key features of VoIP. There is a requirement to have matching technical capacities between two IP phone system users which makes it difficult for smaller users to keep up with the latest upgrades because of costs. But with the forecast on mobile VoIP apps, problems of incompatibility should be lessened in a few years.

Countries, like Malaysia, who does not have the same large scale demand for IP phone systems similar to the US but, market sales still show big figures. This is because users of the country recognize the benefits of VoIP based on Open Source. Despite the necessity for more manpower and energy to operate with an Open Source, trends like the use of 3G phones that can instantly transfer data to the web makes it possible for this type of technology to dwell in such an environment.

Generally, VoIP phone systems are becoming a lot cheaper and more adapted to mobile use. The technology is headed towards this direction and industry developers see that further market development will prove to be advantageous for providers revenue-wise.