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Well as you'd expect, neither Telecom nor Vodafone are providing such a service here in NZ *but* I see it's really starting to take off overseas, as this story (Reuters) clearly indicates.

Indeed, it seems that both of our mobile phone companies are so worried about VOIP being a threat to their traditional revenues that they're explicitly excluding the use of such services on their 3G network.

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On this page, Vodafone lays out the terms and conditions for its "Mobilise" cellular data plans and point 5 of the short list ot caveats says "The use of Mobilise Data plans for Voice over IP (VoIP) is excluded".

So what they're really saying is "we're making wickedly good margins out of our cellular voice offerings (amongst the highest prices in the world) and we don't want that margin reduced by smart customers running VOIP over the same virtual circuits and ruining that.

But Vodafone are not alone -- check out Terms and Conditions for Telecom's mobile broadband plans -- the same VOIP exclusion applies, although they also imply that you might be able to use VOIP *if* you're prepared to pay more for the privilege.

Boy, if ever there was proof that our mobile call rates are grossly excessive then this has to be it!

So what are the options?

Well someone needs to grab a fist-full of investor dollars, set up their own nation-wide WiFi network, import some dual-mode phones, buy some wholesale cellular access from Vodafone or Telecom and launch their own low-cost service.

The icing on the cake would be the fact that, by adding a WiFi card to their PC/DSL connection, this phone could also operate as a cordless around the home and give them access to low-cost VOIP toll services as well.

I know I'd sure be a starter for such a service if it were available.

But hang on, if you're smart you won't even have to install your own WiFi hardware to create such a network...

Set up an authentication service with links to a VOIP carrier, then offer syndication services to anyone with a WiFi card.

Those who sign up to such a syndicate service will then act as nodes of your network and earn a small commission every time someone clocks up a talking minute through their hardware.

You only have to do a bit of war-driving through any urban or suburban part of NZ to see just how much WiFi coverage there already is. now imagine that just some of those WiFi nodes were available for handling VOIP calls -- bloody marvelous!

Let's see some bright-spark entrepreneur wake up to this enormous market and run with it. If they move fast enough, the big wheels will have hardly got out of bed before the lion's share of the market is taken from them.

And in other shocking news -- Ferrit is a bust. Well who'd have thought it?

If you're listening Telecom (and I know you are), drop me a line and we'll talk about how you can turn this new generation (flying) pig around. You're going to need something pretty innovative, and i think I have it.

Tell us all and see what others have to say in The Aardvark Forums

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