According to a new study by Disruptive Analysis, by 2012 there will be just under 100 million mobile users staying connected via voice over WiFi. That's a lot of cell phone users. But its small potatoes compared to the number of handset users who will be using VoIP on 3G data networks. That number is expected to mushroom to 250 million people in the same amount of time.

What's the attraction? For mobile networks, VoIP is cheaper and can accomodate more traffic on what is an increasingly limited spectrum.

Keep in mind, this is all future talk. Although 2012 doesn't seem so far away.

From Russia with Love

What do Chicago, IL, Santa Clara, CA, Dublin, Ireland, San Antonio, TX, Quincy, WA.... and Irkutsk, Siberia all have in common?

All are future homes of new data centers Microsoft is building out allover the world (and I mean allover the world! Have you seen Irkutsk on a map ? Hint:It's just south of Usole-Siberskoye and just north of Listfvyanka.)

Irkutsk? Isn't that one of the territories in the game Risk?

All I can say to Microsoft employees is don't tick off Steve Ballmer. You can now literally get shipped off to Siberia.

At least there will be no problem keeping the servers cool!