An Internet phone operator’s latest financial filing has set off speculation that Google has begun selling a commercial version of its Internet phone service.

Given Google’s rock star status in the technology world, the potential move is sure to enliven the market for VOIP (voice over IP), which is freely available software to make calls using an Internet connection.

Present day VOIP calls using Google Talk, Google’s instant messaging feature, are free, and largely confined to Internet-connected devices that download Google Talk.

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There are three billion phones on the planet - two billion fixed phones and another billion mobile. The percentage of those utilizing Voice-over-IP technology is so small that it doesn’t show up on the radar. In-Stat research estimates that there were a total of 16 million VoIP subscribers in 2005, and will grow to only 55 million in 2009. A recent report by In-Stat found the following:

- 73% of all VoIP subscribers worldwide have migrated to VoIP without making a conscious buying decision to adopt the new technology. - In North America and Canada, cable operators are aggressively expanding their VoIP footprint, but are marketing VoIP as plain old telephone service. - In Asia, South Korea will have the highest VoIP growth rate, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore. - In Europe, broadband ISPs, such as Free Telecom (France) and FastWeb (Italy) are leading the way with innovative consumer triple-play service bundles.

Even if you factor in Skype, the numbers are not big enough. But that doesn’t mean VoIP is not disruptive. In order to see its true potential, we need to start looking beyond cheap calls. It is the theme for this week’s Om & Niall PodSessions, where we discuss the ins-and-outs of marrying voice with applications.

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Sandvine Incorporated, world leader in intelligent broadband network management solutions today released new VoIP figures based on data aggregated from its North American and European broadband service provider deployments.

Broadband service provider-branded VoIP rollouts were extremely successful in 2005 and have taken the lead in terms of share of VoIP minutes.

For this study conducted in November and December 2005, aggregate data was collected and analyzed from Sandvine’s North American and European broadband customer networks where Sandvine is deployed. The data highlighted the VoIP traffic trends of more than 700,000 broadband households from a group of service providers with over 6 million subscribers.

The study indicated that North American service provider-branded VoIP represents 53% of all VoIP minutes on broadband networks. Vonage, with 21.7% share of North American minutes and Skype, with a 14.4% share were the leading third-party providers. All other third-party VoIP providers captured the remaining 10.9% share of minutes.

“Broadband provider-branded VoIP is, and will continue to be a key factor in driving revenue growth and triple-play success for service providers,” said Boyd Peterson, Senior Vice President, Media Research, Yankee Group.

In Europe, service provider-branded VoIP represents 51.2% of all VoIP minutes, while Skype follows closely behind with 45% of all VoIP minutes. Vonage takes less than 1% share while other third-party VoIP providers represent 3.5% of all minutes.

In North America, broadband providers that have rolled out network-wide VoIP deployments are now capturing an average of 81.8% of the VoIP minutes on their own networks. In contrast, the market share in minutes for third-party VoIP providers like Vonage and Skype is 12.9% in such competitive environments.

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What happens when audio-blogging (or podcasting) meets Voice over IP? Well, some Asterisk geniuses I know decided to answer that question. (And Phone Boy decided to test those geniuses’ theory.)

Coalescent Systems the creators of the excellent Asterisk Management Portal, a web GUI system for the already legendary Asterisk open source PBX, have introduced a whole new service geared around two of my favorite subjects–VoIP and Podcasting.

The service is called Gabcast. It’s a social broadcasting platform. What does THAT mean, you ask? Well check this out, from the Gabcast FAQ:

Gabcast is an exciting new service that allows people to voice their opinions, stories, etc. for the rest of the world to hear! Once you create an account online, you dial into your Gabcast account from any phone in the world, record an episode, and people all over the globe can listen to your ramblings. Going travelling? It’s a great way to keep friends and family in touch!

So, Gabcast is essentially podcasting-gone-voice blogging, marketed (at least so far) in a manner similar to Blogger or Typepad. But what I find really exciting about Gabcast is just how EASY its creators have made it to create the voice blogs. You can record via your choice of VoIP providers and softphones, or use a traditional telephone to “call in” your voice blogs.

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Just a small heads-up to let you know that if you have a Skype phone, you’ll soon be able to buy any of Warner Music Group’s songs to use as ringtones. Labels include Atlantic, Asylum and Rhino so get ready for your fave Bjork and Black Sabbath songs to ring in your ears. It’s always been a dream, I know. No specific details yet, but we’ll keep you updated.

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