In a company blog post, TransNexus’ (News - Alert) founder and CEO Jim Dalton highlights four major VoIP trends this year. Dalton indicated that in the coming months VoIP technology will evolve into a more unified communication system. As a result, wrote Dalton, “Companies who stand to integrate a VoIP strategy into traditional telecommunications will see real returns this year.”

This year, with the rise of mobile VoIP applications, the blogger predicts a dramatic shift in how voice traffic will be delivered. All around the world, our mobile phones are, either is now or is rapidly becoming, our only phone. In fact, media reports show that VoIP is starting to displace mass market, legacy mobile voice infrastructures. Supporting this trend is a recent report from a market research firm In-Stat (News - Alert). It estimates the total number of mobile VoIP users will reach 288 million by the end of 2013. Market firm Juniper Research has gone further, suggesting that mobile VoIP users will reach 1 billion in the next five years.

Dalton’ blog post suggests that improvements in network technology, increased competition and the move by telcos to join the Over the Top (OTT) market will all come together to give the mobile Internet voice market a major boost. In fact, the blogger believes that the business of OTT telephony service will remain hot throughout 2013 with new companies nabbing business away from carriers by becoming users’ default mobile messaging service.

The second key trend in this sector is the transitioning to all the IP networks. As per this blog, the communications market is very quickly evolving to a broadband, IP market where the traditional services simply become applications riding on an IP infrastructure. “This new IP based trend has made the traditional regulatory approach completely outdated,” wrote Dalton.

The third trend to watch is the growth of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) related VoIP fraud. As per the blogger, “This practice leaves companies vulnerable to critical security risks. Any handset that you don’t have control over can be compromised.” According to Dalton, simple solutions are already on the market that can detect, and even stop fraudulent activity over VoIP. Later this year, wrote Dalton, TransNexus will improve its innovative NexOSS and SDReporter fraud detection modules.

Lastly, per Dalton’s blog, VoIP in the cloud will be a reality. Companies will commit to implementing a cloud strategy.