Until recently, only landline telcos were affected by VoIP and grudgingly reacted to it by cutting prices. Mobile companies were unfazed since computers and broadband connections were needed for VoIP but now, with mobiles handsets as powerful as three-year-old office computers, the providers are at last reacting . . . and not always in the most consumer-friendly ways.

While not exactly embracing VoIP, landline telcos did avail of some kickback by making money from VoIP using customers who needed a broadband connection to connect to their VoIP provider. A form of equilibrium was reached, with customers making some small savings mostly on international calls and telcos making money from new broadband connections.

Then Skype came along and offered a totally free VoIP service to anyone with a net connection and a computer. In a short time Skype signed up a million users, then 10 million and now Skype has close to 30 million users.

Skype was big news and its large customer base now wanted the service on their mobiles. New phones from the likes of Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson had their own computer operating systems built in, allowing VoIP services including Skype to be installed.

Some mobile networks are resisting. In the UK, operators such as T-Mobile and Vodafone blocked some VoIP applications from working on their networks and their branded phones even had their VoIP features disabled.

Terms and conditions from the UK providers either ban VoIP applications outright or charge you on a per-minute basis to use them, even if you are already paying for a data plan, thereby annihilating any savings.

I asked a few people in Ireland to test VoIP services on their mobile phones. Ireland, thanks to the telecoms regulator, ComReg, has been ahead of many other European countries and has a very VoIP-friendly telecoms environment, with some broadband providers even giving you your own VoIP phone number when you sign up with them or allowing you to move your existing landline number over to a VoIP service.

Most phones tested on the Irish mobile networks allowed VoIP services, though it seemed, like their UK counterparts, Vodafone Irelandbranded Nokia N95s could not make VoIP calls.

Unbranded N95's bought online and not via Vodafone were able to use VoIP services on the Vodafone network. It seems an issue with certain handsets more than with the network itself.

O2 had no such issues with VoIP, and next month 3 Ireland will be releasing a new range of phones called the XSeries which will have Skype pre-installed.

Aaron Clausen of Irish VoIP company Blueface thinks that, compared to the UK, Irish telcos are quite welcoming of VoIP and it makes sense for them to allow access to VoIP services.

"The average ARPU for a mobile customer in Ireland is more like 50, so if a mobile carrier can get their average ARPU up from 50 to 80 by selling data plans they are not going to be too fussed about losing a small number of high volume voice customers, " he said.

While the UK beats us hands down on broadband, it seems that, for the moment, in on respect we are ahead by a nose.

TOP O' THE MORNIN' TO YOUTUBE BEGORRAH!

The Irish edition of YouTube launched this week with an introduction video showing how mad we are. It was like watching Fr Noel Furlong from Father Ted crossed with a 'Where's Wally' cartoon.

And what does an Irish edition of YouTube offer, apart from the wrong-coloured flag?

Well, the most-watched "Irish" clip is an Aerosmith rock video, but after removing all the copyrighted content, we saw that two teenagers kicking the snot out of each other set to rock music was in fact the most-watched Irish video of all time. Great. Irish Tourist Board, take note.