Leader: The VoIP evolution

Technological change is rarely sudden. More often it's a gradual, continuous process – an evolution, one might say.

When it comes to sending voice packets over Internet Protocol networks – aka IP telephony or, more often nowadays, voice over IP or VoIP – it's no different.

Years ago when VoIP was first hyped, the pragmatists said not to get too upset, it's not as if one day you'll pick up your telephone and it will stop working. When VoIP takes hold, they said, you may not even notice. It'll be on the back end and you'll continue to make calls in a familiar way at work or at home – they'll simply be routed in a new way.

Now that, as silicon.com has argued, VoIP has come of age, we're seeing the rate of VoIP evolution pick up speed.

This week saw a number of new developments.

The reigning 'softphone' Skype launched two new paid-for features, bring the VoIP application to the level of competing, though technically quite different, services from Vonage and AOL. Skype users can now buy phone numbers for others to call them on and use voicemail like the rest of the telephony world. These are added to the ability they've had for some time to call standard telephones from their computers.

On the business front, Colt Telecom announced a VoIP service billed on a flat fee basis. This not only simplifies billing but means companies, at least according to Colt, can say goodbye to buying and maintaining PBX systems, if they so choose.

A key to VoIP's development has been the relative lack of regulation compared to what the telecoms incumbents face. More and more industry figures have come out against regulation. This week, Icann chairman Vint Cerf joined in a chorus which already includes (predictably) Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom.

But it's not all good news. The VoIP evolution has its share of challenges to overcome – including the dreaded security concerns, which Cisco, Juniper and IBM are facing with claims some of their VoIP equipment have denial-of-service vulnerabilities. It's all for the best, though. If Darwin is to be believed, the most adaptable of the species will survive and pass on their traits to the next generation.