14 DAY TRIAL // VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) is estimated to become a household word in 2005. The technology that sends phone calls over the Internet will continue to grow, delivering good quality conversations at prices the regular phone companies have trouble matching. Even though VoIP is not a very secure mean of communication, considering there is no encryption and authentication and that nd people can easily hack a caller ID and claim to be whoever they want, the low prices and sound quality seem to amke up for that little lowdown and VoIP is soaring.
And the numbers seem to prove those statements, VoIP Protocol sales in Taiwan were worth $403 million in the second half of last year, both consumer and corporate demand migrating to this alternative in spite of regular fixed telecom companies. The whole of Taiwanese 2004 shipments was worth $585 last year, the Taiwanese Market Intelligence Center said. This seems to be a constant growing pattern, since the number of investment deals in VOIP rose 50 percent from 2002 to 2003.
The corporate VoIP market will continue to make shipments from Avaya, Cisco and Nortel rise. Experts estimate that gateway and phone volumes will rise by 78,500 ports and 919,000 ports respectively. Even Google could be interested in launching a VoIP Telephone service, there are rumors which were also discussed in The London Times saying that Google could be launching a free Voice over IP service in the UK.
The article quotes an consultant saying that Google could link e-commerce search results with VOIP links to enable customers to directly talk to shops for free.