The question is, will they actually do it?Data packets and network dilemmas are expected to confuse 6 million new subscribers a year from 2006 to 2008. And, as VoIP use is expected to double this year, traditional landline phone companies are beginning to get anxious.

But will they resort to malicious interference? While American laws prevent companies from blocking other carrier's calls, it is possible to disrupt the call quality by introducing static interference. VoIP users in other countries can have actually have their calls blocked. If this sounds scary, it should. In a recent article, The VoIP Backlash, Steven Cherry highlighted some of the potential VoIP nightmares in store for us.

A seven-year-old Mountain View, Calif., company, Narus Inc., has devised a way for telephone companies to detect data packets belonging to VoIP applications and block the calls. For example, now when someone in Riyadh clicks on Skype's "call" button, Narus's software, installed on the carrier's network, swoops into action. It analyzes the packets flowing across the network, notices what protocols they adhere to, and flags the call as VoIP. In most cases, it can even identify the specific software being used, such as Skype's.
Narus's software can "secure, analyze, monitor, and mediate any traffic in an IP network," says Antonio Nucci, the company's chief technology officer. By "mediate" he means block, or otherwise interfere with, data packets as they travel through the network in real time.

The real question is, what will the phone companies choose to do? They could choose to charge extra for 'high quality calls' without static. And, since broadband providers aren't under the same laws restricting the telephone companies, they can legally block VoIP packets, if they so choose (or if they decide to enter into a partnership with a traditional phone company to do so). In fact, Comcast is a Narus customer, though the company refuses to answer whether or not they employ the call-blocking capabilities.

Whether or not the phone companies try to block VoIP use rather than invest the time to discover new ways of profitability, one thing's for sure, we must continue to watch this story as it develops. If the public at large doesn't know about this, the large service providers may feel they have license to do whatever it takes to stay in the black.