VoIP will be free inside 2 years

I predict that someone will offer VoIP that can access standard phone lines and cell service users for free in the near future. I'd already come to this assumption before reading this great article at Om Malik on Broadband appropriately describing current VoIP providers as data silos. The problem, as Om notes is that Silos Are For Grain, Not VoIP.

Voice is data, data is cheap, and the only thing keeping the price of data high are laws and regulation. Look forward to data approaching free, data access approaching ubiquity, and rising speeds. The phone company that survives will be cashing in on the final days of artificially high prices but planning behind the scenes for how to stay sexy in the coming phone armageddon. I think that the old duck metaphor is appropriate. Above the water everything looks serene, below legs are treading like crazy.

Raul