Study: Traditional Desktop Phones Will Soon be History

Traditional desktop phones will be a thing of the past within the next decade, according to a new study, with more companies opting for “free” online calling services like Skype (News - Alert) and Viber.

The survey, which was conducted by British ISP Timico, found that 72 percent of respondents believed that businesses will make the full move from traditional phone lines to Internet-based apps and software in the future. The independent firm spoke with 150 IT managers in the U.K. as its sample.

Timico went on to say that smartphones will further penetrate businesses, adding to the growth of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) practices in small to medium enterprises.

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Charlie Whelpton, Director of Unified Communications (News - Alert) at Timico, said that the results were very interesting with more companies opting for free VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) services but warned of the security risks of using such services.

“The research seems to compound the fact that devices which were primarily meant for social activity are now revolutionizing the way we conduct business,” he said about the proliferation of mobile devices in business. “In an age where streamlining and efficiency is key, businesses now expect their applications to be multi-purpose, so simply making and receiving calls just isn’t enough.”

Online communications services received a significant boost lately with Facebook’s (News - Alert) $19 billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp. The app also announced the addition of voice calling at last week’s Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) in Barcelona, Spain, adding a new player in the online-based voice-calling game.

Meanwhile, Viber was recently acquired by Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten, showing that large companies are investing significant amounts of money in voice calling services for the future.