Free calls debate divides forum

Telecoms equipment vendors and analysts are divided over whether voice telephone calls will eventually be free of charge and operators will instead make their money from services.

Vendors including Hewlett Packard and EDS, predicted last week at the IDC European Telecoms Forum that voice calls will be free within three to six years.

Sebastiano Tevarotto, marketing manager at HP's worldwide enterprise division, said: 'Within six years, between three and four per cent of telcos' revenue will come from voice calls. Eventually, voice will be given for free. If you are a company with a high performance revenue, you can give voice for free and make money on services.'

Hartmut Gotz, director of European communications group at EDS, said he expected voice to be free within three years as operators bundle voice services with a range of value-added services such as security, Web hosting and billing.

But Gigi Wang, senior IDC analyst, disagreed, pointing out to the 200 telecoms equipment vendors and operators at the forum that the vast majority of telecoms operators' revenue comes from voice calls.

'How can voice be free? How can the internet be free? Someone has to pay for the network,' Wang commented.

'Carriers' and ISPs' strategy should be to bundle services so that it appears that internet and voice calls are free - but they have to bundle so that voice still gets paid for,' she said.

Services that could be bundled with voice telecoms include application services, Web hosting and call centre hosting, Wang added.

IDC estimated that voice revenue represented a significant chunk of Europe's $190 billion communications market - about 84 per cent.

Meanwhile, IP and data traffic generated only 16 per cent of European revenue.