Is VoIP through a mobile device likely to become a reality?

Is VoIP through a mobile device likely to become a reality?

I work for the corporate department of an Irish mobile phone company, and have come across the idea of being able to use VoIP through a mobile device.

Can you give me some background information about this, or do you know any sites that have an introduction to this topic?

And in your opinion, is this likely to become a reality, or is it another "far into the future" technology?

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VoIP over cellular would require the cell phone to be IP addressable either statically or dynamically. This can be done via a gateway or other mapping device. The beauty of IP is that is has been around for many years and people know how to use it.

Here is an interesting article at http://www.comsoc.org/ci1/private/2000/apr/Liao.html that explains the challenges of making this work. I would think the largest challenge would be in moving from cell to cell or tower to tower. Your IP address would have to be available on the next tower to assure you did not cause a network conflict with another phone. I believe that IPv6 will allow sufficient addresses for this to become more of a reality than the current gateway function that would be required today.

This was first published in July 2003