Growth in VoIP WiFi Phones Expected

If you haven’t already noticed, several VoWiFi (VoIP over Wi-Fi) phones have already been released this year and companies expect more growth. CSR plc, a Bluetooth pioneer, has started volume production [Comms Design] of its single-chip Wi-Fi device. There might be a burst of Wi-Fi phones, especially for Skype, although I’m thinking dual-mode Wi-Fi/ cellular services and phones is where the real money will be. However, if municipal Wi-Fi networks eventually spread to every town and city, there won’t be too many places that  you’ll need a cell phone.



2 Comments

  1. Tom Blandford Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 3:46 pm

    ‘This year’? Which year. The article has no date!

  2. Andy Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 4:31 pm

    Hi Tom,

    We perceive there to be growth in VoIP WiFI phones throughout this year and next year especially.

    Recently there has been a whole raft of WiFi phones releases, such as the Netgear SPH101, Belkin’s WiFi phone and even Linksys are getting in on the game. The thing is though, all these phones currently come pre-installed with Skype, so there is a degree of inhibition right there.

    As the VoIP market grows beyond Skype and soft VoIP clients in general, I think that manufacturers will not need to have a Skype-certified label on their product for it to sell in big enough volume to warrant their initial R&D investment. I think that at that point, WiFi phones will be available without being tied into any particuar service and you’ll be able to hop onto any WiFi network with your phone configured to run via SIP.


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