Consumer demand for Voice over IP isn’t likely to boom until wireless IP handsets are available to offer an integrated wireline/wirless service, according to a new study from In-Stat. Once those handsets are in the mass market – predicted by 2007 – VoIP will explode – In-Stat predicts there will be 66 million cellular/WiFi handsets will be in operation by 2009.

Dual-mode handsets, which allow consumers to move seamlessly between wireline and wireless networks, will be the key driver for mass consumer adoption of VoIP, said Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst.

“VoIP in the consumer space will continue to grow pretty significantly as it has, but it will still be a small fraction of the overall voice market,” he said. “We won’t see the mass migration of PSTN customers to VoIP until such time as there is a reason to do it.”

Giving consumers the convenience of integrated service, with calls transferring between WiFi networks, connected to broadband networks at home, and cellular networks when mobile.

Business users are also looking to integrated services, as they try to better handle the mobility of workers, Nissen said. But the business market is already moving to Internet Protocol and integrating voice into that process already makes sense.

There is less motivation for consumers to adopt VoIP, he added.

“In the consumer market, VoIP is still driven by cost savings,” he said. “But long-distance service is already cheap, so for most consumers, that’s not a significant driver.”