As smartphone penetration deepens globally, mobile voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) solutions are becoming increasingly popular – with new findings that reveal mobile VoIP will continue to be on the rise in 2012.

According to research firm In-Stat (News - Alert), subscribers to mobile VoIP services will triple – active mobile VoIP subscriber rates will triple in 2011, growing from 9 million in 2010 to 29 million.

The key factor behind such a surge in demand for the technology is smartphone penetration, with numerous providers now offering services that give consumers access to mobile VoIP on some level.

“While VoIP is a well-defined market, mobile VoIP is still in its infancy, with most offerings only being developed over the past several years - and because it's in its nascent stage, there are significant opportunities for companies to develop the market,” explained Amy Cravens, senior analyst at In-Stat.

Cravens also said that there are a number of uncertainties that solutions providers must overcome, however this is typical of a new and booming market.

“As the addressable market increases with smartphone penetration a greater number of providers are introducing services, including a growing handful of mobile operators that are beginning to embrace, to some degree, mobile VoIP,” In-Stat said in a company statement.

Other key findings of the mobile VoIP research include the following:

• The primary distribution channel utilized by respondents to access mobile VoIP offerings is through the OS application store.
• The largest concentration of mobile VoIP users is in Western Europe.
• Revenues associated with mobile VoIP usage will increase to over $4 billion in 2015.
• LTE (News - Alert) operators are not likely to have a significant impact on the mobile VoIP market until 2013.

Source: TMCnet