Internet telephony is set to grow and grow in the UK for at least the next five years, according to industry-watcher Ovum. This takes us into next-generation voice – and, one would hope, a properly unbundled phone network.

"The composition of the voice market will be quite different to what we see today," says Mark Main, senior analyst at Ovum. The changing face of the phone-calls business is largely thanks to players like Skype, according to research firm the Kelsey Group.

"Skype’s service will take business away from the telcos," says Neal Polachek, senior vice president at Kelsey. "Even at a very low price, putting any price on the offering gives consumers a perception the service has greater value, and more consumers are likely to migrate over from traditional phone service."

I'm loath to namecheck the telco whose "line tags" are still scuppering my attempts to switch broadband ISPs, and who charge me a fat line rental fee even though I only use my landline about once every four months. However I think it's worth mentioning BT Retail's claim to have amassed 1 million customers for its internet telephony offering.

One million, eh? Ovum's Mark Main dug a little deeper and discovered that the claim is rather a loose one.

"BT implies that it has a million internet telephony users, whereas in reality anyone who takes a BT Retail Total Broadband package is automatically registered for internet telephony even if they don't use the service." In other words, it's rather like God Channel 2 claiming to have 8 million viewers just because 8 million people get Sky. Sheesh, as they say in Las Vegas.