Mobile VoIP Is Paving the Way for All-IP Mobile Services, Report Finds

Mobile voice over IP (VoIP) has made undeniable progress toward becoming a mainstream technology, and its adoption by cellular network operators will be an important step in the mobile industry's evolution to all-IP technologies and services, according to the latest report from Unstrung Insider (www.unstrung.com/insider), a paid research service from TechWeb's Unstrung (www.unstrung.com).

Mobile VoIP: A Disruptive Service Goes Mainstream analyzes the latest developments and trends driving mobile VoIP applications and services. It examines the technology issues that have confronted mobile VoIP upstarts and the solutions that they have developed to overcome them. It also explores the commercial and technical challenges and opportunities facing startups and incumbent mobile phone operators and handset makers. Finally, this report profiles 12 mobile VoIP providers, exploring their strategies for tapping into the young and promising market for IP-enabled voice offerings.

  For a list of companies analyzed in this report, please see:
  http://img.lightreading.com/uni/pdf/uni0809_companies.pdf

"Mobile VoIP is no longer just a cheap telephone call," notes John Blau, research analyst with Unstrung Insider and author of the report. "The big advantage of VoIP is its ability to integrate with other systems and stimulate further adoption."

Mobile VoIP represents a promising and natural step forward in the continued evolution of mobile networks, and operators will need to come to grips with these changes, according to Blau. "Although many mobile operators continue to block VoIP calls to protect their voice revenues, that strategy will not be sustainable," he says. "Sooner or later, mobile operators will be forced to deploy their own VoIP services, since next-generation networks such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax are all-IP and do not support circuit voice."

  Key findings of Mobile VoIP: A Disruptive Service Goes Mainstream include:

  --  Many mobile VoIP players are broadening into other applications,
      integrating with other systems, and stimulating further adoption.
  --  New services such as voice-enhanced IM, voice mashups, and voice
      plugins are being used to build communities.
  --  Operator resistance to mobile VoIP is gradually softening worldwide,
      as major incumbents such as T-Mobile drop their bans.
  --  New Flash technology enabling peer-to-peer voice capability without
      requiring plugins or soft clients could be a game-changer.
  --  Venture capitalists remain interested in disruptive mobile VoIP
      technology, which they view as still in its early days of development.

  --  Security is an ever-present issue in wireless markets, but the WPA2
      standard provides robust security.

Mobile VoIP: A Disruptive Service Goes Mainstream is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (12 monthly issues) to Unstrung Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.unstrung.com/insider. For more information on all of Light Reading's Insider services, please visit www.lightreading.com/research.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

  Jeff Claudino
  Director of Sales
  Insider Research Services
  619-229-9940
  claudino@lightreading.com

  Press/analyst contact:

  Dennis Mendyk
  Managing Director
  Insider Research Services
  201-587-2154
  mendyk@heavyreading.com

  About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Expo London, The Tower Summit @ CTIA, and Optical Expo, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About TechWeb

TechWeb (techweb.com/aboutus), the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

  * 13.3 million business decision-makers: based on # of monthly connections

  About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists - with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/.

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SOURCE: Unstrung Insider

CONTACT: Jeff Claudino, Director of Sales, Insider Research Services,
+1-619-229-9940, claudino@lightreading.com; or Dennis Mendyk, Managing
Director, Insider Research Services, +1-201-587-2154, mendyk@heavyreading.com

Web Site: http://www.unstrung.com/insider