SAN JOSE--Mobile handsets represent the next great opportunity for the VoIP industry, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures said today in a VON keynote.

While transport remains a $1 trillion industry annually, mobile transport is actually growing, and the abundance of handsets--twice as many as PCs--makes the mobile “a massive opportunity” for VoIP innovations, Khosla said.

“Everybody thinks Google is big, but SMS [short message service] is bigger than Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft [messaging] combined,” he said. “SMS is bigger and it hasn’t been exploited.”

The potential for mobile advertising is great, Khosla said. He also encouraged VON attendees to look at different business models for Internet video, including user-generated advertising, such as SpotRunner does or more focused advertising, supported by YuMe Networks, which sends different ads depending on who is watching.

Another company that Khosla backs--iSkoot--is working with mobile services provides to offer IP services, a model he encouraged versus constantly challenging incumbents.

The venture capitalist also encouraged VON attendees to explore the possibilities of wireless USB. “It would enable a very different type of phone,” he said. “You can carry your PC on your phone or your phone on your USB.” There is also the potential to send video to the phone and use the phone as a projection device to create a larger image using spatial photonics, Khosla said.

The primary message of Khosla--and later, VON founder Jeff Pulver--is that innovation is still able to create new markets and new possibilities.

Khosla cited a service at Carnegie Mellon that uses SMS in a campus laundry to alert students when their laundry is done.

“Don’t bet against the net,” he said