Mobile VoIP services have yet to make their mark on the telecoms market, despite the availability of suitable technology.

Barriers to adoption might leave services languishing, at least until the rollout of next-generation mobile networks by carriers, according to panellists at a debate on the topic at the NetEvents summit in Malta last week.

Emir Halilovic, programme manager of networking and infrastructure at analysts IDC, said VoIP remains predominantly a fixed-line market. Multimedia revenues in the mobile arena are growing quickly, but from a very small base.

“Mobile applications are a very, very small slice of that whole market. Still, there is a great promise in both (mobile VoIP and multi-media) because the ecosystem elements are all there, although it’s still not fully functional.”

Connecting existing GSM or 3G Radio Access Networks to VoIP systems would bring the cost and feature benefits of VoIP to all those handsets. VoIP on mobile networks also offers spectrum usage benefits to operators.

But the technology competes against offering comparable services over Wi-Fi networks. Wi-Fi-based services require new multimode handsets, client software, and significant investments in upgrading existing wireless networks. Since providers are doing all these things already this is not the showstopper it might seem. Ingrained user behaviour is more of a problem.