Consumer VoIP projected to hit 37 million by 2011 Boston research firm Yankee Group reported that consumer VoIP use increased by 125 percent last year, to more than 9 million subscribers. VoIP adoption in the United States reached 9 percent of households, up from 4 percent the previous year.
Ongoing demand for VoIP service is expected to intensify with the deployment of dual-mode cell phones, which numbered less than 1 million in 2006. Yankee Group expects the number of dual-mode handsets in the market to reach 22 million within four years.

PSTN and VoIP get equal time in China The public switched telephone network and VoIP are neck and neck in China. According to a report accessed by the VoIP Monitor, call durations on both systems were virtually the same, but VoIP is growing faster. VoIP accounted for more than 43 percent of the country's long distance calls last year, and is expected to exceed PSTN and mobile in the next two or three years, according to analysis conducted by Reporterlinker.com. The data is based on official state information, but also believed to be a hefty black market trade in international calling that grew 30 percent, year over year, from 20

Google says free WiFi catching on in Mountain View About a year after installing a free muni-WiFi network in Mountain View, Calif., Google said that nearly 15,000 people log on to the system monthly. The results reveal that use of the service is growing 10 percent each month. People are logging on from every corner of the city, and virtually all of the 400 routers the company installed are being used on a given day. The most interesting statistic is that "over 100 distinct types of WiFi devices" have used the network.

VoIP supply chain lacks wholesalers In addition to more love, what the VoIP world needs now is more wholesalers. Without them VoIP service providers will not be able to reach as far and wide with their service as they need to reach. As long as they consider quality and reliability as the most important criteria when selecting their solutions, new wholesalers should be able to attract all the resellers they desire.

List of VoIP risks keeps growing While most people charged with the security of VoIP networks are concerned with hackers' ability to eavesdrop on VoIP calls, the list of risks is much longer. Denial of service attacks, flooding and logic attacks, injected messages, call hijacking and caller ID spoofing all need to be reckoned with, too. When it comes to protecting VoIP, encryption of both the media channel and the call-signaling channel are key.

Canada set to deregulate VoIP Canada's federal government is preparing to put a halt to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission's (CRTC's) plans to regulate VoIP by setting minimum prices for incumbents. While non-incumbents fear that unregulated incumbents will sell their service at a loss, Bell Canada and Telus want a chance to win a piece of the market share that's already been won by non-incumbents.

Clearwire launches wVoIP in Texas Clearwire is offering high-quality, dependable VoIP-based phone service over its existing wireless network in six Texas cities. Local number, unlimited long distance calling in the U.S. and Canada, call forwarding and caller ID are just a few of the service's features. Customers can manage everything from a Web dashboard, available to them via any kind of Internet connection.

Illegal or not, VoIP taking root in India While VoIP from PC-to-telephone/mobile handset is still illegal in India, the technology is having a significant impact on the country's telecom service providers. The technology's growing momentum is pushing them to drop their rates on international long distance calls. Using VoIP to talk between PCs is allowed, however, users need a PC and a broadband connection, or access to one in a place like a cyber café. Even though only a small percentage of the population have both, those that do are wild about Google Talk and Skype's ability to let them talk so inexpensively.

Fiji legalizes VoIP It won't get you high, but it's now legal to use VoIP in Fiji. The island's Cabinet approved a policy that will ensure that VoIP can be provided to consumers without stepping on the toes of existing "exclusivities" enjoyed by Telecom Fiji and Fiji International Telecommunications. The Cabinet's Communications Minister has even gone so far as to hope out loud that the move will promote deployment of broadband and thereby help stimulate Fiji's economy. VoIP providers will be required to obtain licenses to provide the service.

VoIP anyone? Tennis balls won't be the only thing hitting the "net" at the Stella Artois Championship tennis tournament at the Queen's Club in London. Communications provider to the tournament for the past five years, this year, Max WiFi is adding VoIP to the WiFi technology being used to support Internet connections and 60 telephones provided for tournament officials, security personnel and the media.

VoIP could let call centers go green Never mind that VoIP can save money or improve service. It's also good for the planet. One analysis says that the U.K.'s million call-center employees generate 1.3 million tons of greenhouse gases by commuting. Eliminating those emissions is the equivalent of planting 1,400 square miles of forest. Globally, the 6.5 million call agents' annual commutation have the same carbon footprint as 6.2 million acres of forest. So one telemarketer roughly equals an acre of trees. There's an unkind joke somewhere in there, but I can't quite find it.