Let’s add one more to the welter of articles noting that, yes, mobile VoIP is on the rise, and shows no signs of slowing down. More good news these days is always welcome.

The research firm attributed the robust growth to “increased smartphone penetration and a growing breadth of offerings,” as well as a greater number of providers introducing services, “including a growing handful of mobile operators that are beginning to embrace, to some degree, mobile VoIP.”

TMC’s Doug Mohney recently noted that GigaOm Mobilize Editor Kevin C. Tofel wrote 3 UK, Telstra (News - Alert), Deutsche Telekom and "other carriers around the world took mobile voice calling" to the next level in 2011, in his piece titled "What does HD Voice sound like on a mobile VoIP call?"    

“Tofel finds some love for CounterPath's (News - Alert) Bria Android client and predicts when VoLTE starts appearing, mobile call quality (in the U.S.) will start improving,” Mohney wrote, noting that how carriers will translate (i.e., transcode) between the two major HD voice codecs remains to be resolved, “as does the issue of interconnecting HD voice calls between carriers.”

Canada's second largest mobile carrier has quietly launched HD voice service on its HSPA+ network, Mohney wrote, adding that Bell Mobility, along with its subsidiary Virgin Mobile (News - Alert) Canada, “now joins WIND Mobile in offering mobile HD voice to the Great White North.”

In fact, he thinks, “By the end of the year, mobile HD voice will be on a tear throughout the wireless world. This opens up another question: Will mobile HD voice pull through the use and connection of HD voice technology in the broadband world?”

It’s a good question. TMC’s Beecher Tuttle recently reported that Palo Alto (News - Alert)-based Ooma has recently introduced a new cordless handset that provides call clarity and smartphone features and, “when coupled with the company's Ooma Telo system,” the cordless Ooma HD2 Handset “is able to capture twice the voice data to double the fidelity of standard phone calls.”  

Also, Ooma offers a mobile app which costs $9.99 and delivers twice the fidelity of standard phone calls -- for a richer, more natural sounding conversation between Ooma customers.  

And if affordability is your thing, well, you’re in luck -- calls using the Ooma Mobile app start at 1.9 cents per minute for U.S. calls. Also, the Ooma Mobile calling plan allows you to talk for 1,000 minutes for only $4.99 per month.

For Ooma Premier Customers, the savings are a little better, since they also receive 250 minutes of U.S. calling for free every month. And there’s a limited time promotion now allowing Ooma Premier Customers who also subscribe to Ooma's International Bundle to get 750 minutes of free calling in the U.S. and to 70 other countries.