VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has become a buzzword these days. Big players have entered this business. Three months ago, eBay acquired Skype, one of the pioneers in VoIP, for $2.6bn. I have been using Skype for quite some time now. Although the quality is sometimes not good, but we can’t beat the cost, compared to fixed phone line or mobile phone.

Last week, Yahoo officially announced that they are entering VoIP market. They are going to add a feature in Yahoo Messenger that allows us to make PC-to-phone call. The service is expected to be cheaper than Skype. How about the quality? I don’t know yet because the service is currently available in selected countries only, including United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain and Italy.

In fact, I have tried to register for Yahoo Phone Out, that’s what they call their service. However, I was stuck in the registration form. It kept asking my personal information. I used Internet Explorer and Firefox, but the results were the same (see the picture below). No message explaining why I couldn’t continue with the registration. May be I am too stupid to use the service…. After trying for about 10 times, I realized that the service might not be available in Canada yet.

Yahoo Phones Out Registration

Yesterday, Microsoft announced their VoIP solution, which allows PC-to-phone calling too. They work with MCI to bring a service called MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call. It will be part of the next MSN Messenger and will be available sometime next year. Again, I don’t have a chance to be a beta tester since I don’t live in the United States…. :(

What’s next? We have been able to call internationally for only 1 cent from our PC. How about mobile phone? Can we do the same thing from our mobile phone? Yes and no. Now we can already connect our mobile phone to a PC using bluetooth and then make a call using VoIP. An example of this solution is Useful Skype Phone for Nokia phones. It is not real VoIP solution for our mobile phones because we still need a PC with Internet connection.

What are we waiting for then? We have mobile phones with high processing power. Many 3G phones already came to the market. Many operators around the world have been promoting 3G services. We have seen some WiFi phones too. It means VoIP is in front of us. There were rumors saying that Skype will come to Nokia phone sometime next year. So, we can expect that next year we can make international call from our mobile phones for 1 cent only!

What will happen to network operator then? I believe they already have some plans to keep their revenues.

Well… communication is getting cheaper and cheaper….