Voice over Internet use soars

Last year was a breakout time for Internet telephone services, with the number of U.S. subscribers more than tripling to 4.5 million and industry revenue surpassing $1 billion.

When 2005 began, there were 1.3 million subscribers of Voice over Internet Protocol services, according to a survey by analysis firm TeleGeography. In the last three months of the year alone, 900,000 people signed up for VoIP services.

VoIP requires a broadband Internet connection or a cable subscription, and generally comes in competitive calling plans.

Cable companies are now the largest providers of VoIP services, with 52 percent of the market compared to 45 percent a year ago.

The largest VoIP provider is still independent Vonage Holdings Corp. It had 1.2 million subscribers at the end of the year, just ahead of the 1.1 million at Time Warner Inc.’s cable division. But Time Warner Cable is the fastest-growing provider and appears set to surpass Vonage this year.

TeleGeography predicts that VoIP companies will continue to add about 3 million subscribers a year for the next three or four years.

Even with that growth, VoIP remains a relatively small slice of the phone business. There were 132 million residential and small business phone lines in the United States in December 2004, according to the latest figures available from the U.S. Telecom Association.

Let your feet do the typing

Ever feel like you’re not making good enough use of your feet when you’re catching up on your e-mail or sorting through all those digital pictures you took on that last vacation?

Computer scientists in Microsoft Corp.’s research division have developed a color-coded “dance pad” with buttons you can tap with your feet — or jump on — to scroll through electronic files.

It may never make it to store shelves, but then again, Microsoft spends billions every year researching far-out technologies without worrying about whether every gizmo will sell.

This week the software giant held its annual internal trade show where hundreds of researchers were showing off their work. The “Step User Interface” technology was one of the concepts available for a sneak peek.

Cybercrime on rise in Japan

The number of people arrested for fraud and other crimes linked to the Internet jumped almost 52 percent last year to a record 3,161, Japan’s National Police Agency says.

The figure easily surpassed the previous year’s record of 2,081 arrests, according to a report issued by the NPA, which began compiling statistics on cybercrimes in 1999.

In July, Japan’s police beefed up patrols of the Internet amid an increase in e-mail scams, the transfer of illegal content and other crimes. For example, four men were arrested in November for allegedly slandering a Japanese celebrity by superimposing her face on a nude picture and posting it online.