Mobile VOIP set to soar

Spending in the mobile voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP) space is expected to rise to $6 billion by 2015, according to a report from In-Stat, reports Computer World.

Mobile operators, fearing for their bottom lines, have often acted as barriers to VOIP adoption.

Juniper Research analysts forecasts that mobile VOIP over WiFi will cost operators $5 billion globally in 2015. However, analysts claim these same carriers will become significant drivers in the technology's growth.

Mobile VOIP company, Rebtel, has rolled out a BlackBerry application allowing users to make and receive free international calls between more than 50 countries, states The San Francisco Chronicle.

Rebtel currently has mobile offerings for the Android platform and is adding it to their next version of Apple's iOS iteration this year.

Google estimates that there are now more than 500 000 apps running on more than 150 million mobile devices, and that the app economy is estimated to be $2 billion annually, growing to $4 billion by 2012.

Skype has hit 27 million simultaneous users, following a few months ago when the company had broken the 25 million simultaneous users milestone, says Fierce VOIP.

The site sees the 25 million figure now on a daily basis during peak usage.

According to GigaOm, the recent releases of the iOS version of Skype with an emphasis on video calls may have been part of the reason for the explosive growth. The new app runs in the background of devices, meaning users can keep it on all day to receive calls.