It wasn’t long ago that most users associated mobile Internet only with writing e-mail, or sending the occasional picture message. But these days, the technology for cheap VoIP calls or IM chats is becoming readily available.

 

For example, Microsoft (News - Alert) Office Communicator Mobile software, introduced two years ago, can be used to make a VoIP call over a mobile handset. The original reaction to this type of technology from mobile phone companies was reserved. It was, after all, technology that could eat into their cash-cow voice business and could, potentially, wipe billions of dollars off their market value.

 

Communicator Mobile was followed by an equally noteworthy VoIP development when European 3G operator Hutchison 3 Group (Hutchison 3G), a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, formed a partnership to provide a commercial VoIP service for mobile phones.

 

At the time, mobile phone executives preferred to dodge the VoIP debate. Many pointed to technical challenges that hinder a quick rollout of the Internet telephony service over mobile networks. Yet today, it has become clear that VoIP is indeed the future of mobile communications. And so those same execs have been forced to deal with it head-on.