UCAN attorney Art Neill recently talked to San Diego 6 consumer reporter John Mattes on the appearance of cheap, Internet (IP) communications based voice services on cell phones.  Skype and Truphone have both appeared as applications on cell phones and are potential game changers due to the dramatically lower cost of making calls, particularly International calls.  The services often have video, conferencing, and voicemail built in for little or no cost as well.

That said, the technologies will not create fierce competition in communications by themselves.  There are still serious barriers to making VoIP basd options realistic competitors to classic cell phone voice plans.

• Right now Skype on the Iphone is artificially limited to using only Wifi, and cannot use the user's data plan that they MUST purchase for Iphone.  (Note the T-mobile Android G1 can use broadband data through the network as well as Wifi for Skype)
• Ubiquitous wifi is still not here.  The FCC needs to make sure that public, affordable (or free) broadband Internetis made avaialable over the old television spectrum.  Otherwise consumers are still limited to home, coffee shops, libraries, etc.
• The apps are available on smartphones.  While this segment is growing fast, the phones can be very expensive ($600-$700 for Iphone with no contract).  With smartphones only making up less than 15% of the market, the apps are still largely out of the reach of most consumers.

What do you think of VoIP options and apps on cell phones? Is it a game changer or just a small step?