The VoIP service is availablepossible for both business and residential use, ranging from Laptop service all the way up to phone-to-phone

Just last week I was browsing through a piece in FT and found about this thing I had never heard of before called a skype phone.These two are now loaded beyond their wildest dreams because of selling their concept to one of the premier sites on the web,e bay.So why am I getting so pumped up?.Many know it as skype.It is not a new idea, making long distance calls over the internet for free.

So all you have is rig up a phone to your laptop and you can see and talk to anyone anywhere in the world using skipe.There is a downside, however, and that is that it is most easily used over a broadband connection.Video is still in its infancy so you wont always get a good picture.

So I went on Ebay and yes you guessed it, they are flogging phones already due to skyp.I guess it's been around for a couple of years already but it's catching on fast..

Due to Skypes massive success big commercial telephone companies are trying to get a foothold in the marketplace.The question on everyones tongues is will it last the distance.Is it here to stay or will it have vanished off the face of the net within twelve months.

If previous experience is anything to go by then we can expect the big players to look at voip in microscopic detail.The most plausible scenario is that the federal govt will want a piece of the action by regulation.At the moment skype makes its money by charging people who phone land lines from their computer using it.

The next big thing which voip are making a bold move towards is the idea of web conferencing. Web video conferencing was a huge idea about ten years ago but then fell off the radar but now it is making a return.

Audio and video are becoming more accessible for everyone nowadays-in this day and age especially with the massive success of youtube.Many people think video and audio will be a passing fad but all the evidence points in the other direction.

The next decade will be make or break for the world of voip and only the consumers will tell us whether the free skype download is worth shouting home about.The question remains will voip take over from the phone.