Nearly 300M VoIP Subscribers Seen By 2013

There will be 288 million users of Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) by 2013, according to market research firm In-Stat.

While so far, VoIP has been driven largely by the likes of cable companies that want to disrupt the incumbent phone companies, the next big VoIP boost is going to come from mobile. In-Stat believes over half of those 288 million subscribers "will be associated with online mobile VoIP providers, under one-third will utilize mobile VoIP with 3G MVNOs or mobile operators, and 11 % with WiMAX/LTE operators." Thanks to the increased availability of dual-mode phones, VoIP is becoming especially popular in the Asia-Pacific region, nudging the current market leader, Europe, aside. In the meantime, this move to mobile VoIP has prompted some to ask if we're getting closer to an all-VoIP phone.