Phone your i-Mate on net-enabled mobile

Mobile phones that double as internet phones will become available in Europe, the United States and Asia by March, a manufacturer said on Thursday.

Distributed by Dubai-based developer i-Mate, the $850 PDA2K and PDA2 cell phones come equipped with voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a software that shifts phone services from the highly regulated and taxed traditional local phone networks onto the unregulated internet. The VoIP software comes from Skype, a popular Europe-based net phone provider.

The i-Mate phones are based on a Microsoft operating system and contain radios capable of using both cell and Wi-Fi networks. When you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot, the internet phone software lets you dial other Skype users for free, or pay per minute for calling traditional phones.

Analysts have long suggested that the net/cell phone tandem could prove a potent weapon that net phone, mobile and broadband providers could use to steal customers from the nation's major local phone companies.

But a new study projects it will be a number of years before Wi-Fi phones manage to fulfill expectations. Analysts at Infonetics Research say that while Wi-Fi phones are taking hold in hospitals and businesses, worldwide sales were negligible last year. According to estimates, revenues from the sale of such devices will grow to $4bn by 2009, a relative pittance when compared with overall mobile phone sales.