Mobile calls will be 50% VoIP in 10 years

Within ten years, half of all voice calls on mobile handsets will be made using VoIP software, Gartner said this week.

Mobile VoIP is set to challenge the revenue models of traditional mobile operators, as high-speed 4G connections make the technology increasingly attractive to handset users.

Gartner predicts that within ten years, VoIP calls made on portals such as Google, Facebook, MySpace, and Yahoo will take a 30% share of all voice traffic, whilst half of mobile voice calls will be made on VoIP software.

“Mass-scale adoption of end-to-end mobile VoIP calling will not happen until 4G networks are fully implemented in 2017,” said Tole Hart, Gartner analyst.

“Once the basic market conditions are in place, transition to mobile portal VoIP should be fairly rapid because of the inherent convenience and end-user cost savings.”

According to Gartner, “It is conceivable, perhaps even inevitable,” that one day all mobile calls will be made using VoIP technology.

Gartner’s affirmation of mobile VoIP comes in the same week that Microsoft decided to ban VoIP applications from the soon to be launched Windows Mobile Marketplace.