I've long railed about carrier incompetence when it comes to telecommunications services. Instead of viewing VoIP as a healthy addition to the voice market, telecom carriers have always tried to actively prevent it from gaining a foothold - but without much success. Given all this hostility, it's remarkably refreshing to see a major US telecom carrier try and embrace VoIP and all that it entails instead of attempting to stifle it.

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VoIP usage in the US is growing faster than any other type of Internet traffic. Services like Google Voice already account for 20% of all voice activities on any network and this is expect to more than double in the next few years. This explosion has been helped along by the smartphone revolution as well as the upgrading of wireless data capabilities such as 3G and most recently 4G. Yet this growth has happened despite the carriers' reluctance. All over the world, we're seeing telcos toying with plans to charge extra for VoIP traffic and even ban it altogether. In some countries, the government itself has stepped in to keep it under wraps - such as Saudi Arabia and China.

T-Mobile's latest team up with Walmart for no contract, $30 per month data services is just one indication of its willingness to buck this trend. On its website, it offers options to place calls using wifi if possible and recently, it introduced a service known as Bobsled which allows users to call Facebook friends for free. The data plans in collaboration with Walmart are easily the most exciting offer so far.

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The hurdle of course is one which T-Mobile can do nothing about. Which is that most people are locked into contracts in which they pay a regular monthly fee for a fixed number of voice minutes which most of them simply never use. Lots of people have roll over minutes numbering in the thousands which expire sooner or later. This of course, is a windfall for telcos who get revenue for unused minutes which is guaranteed over a period of two years. In addition, customers make use of phone upgrade plans and so still keep their locked in contracts.

But there's a growing resistance to this system partly fueled by the knowledge of how other countries operate and this is what T-Mobile is trying to capitalize on. Once the contract system ends, people will be free to try out new and innovative plans as well as unconventional ways of making telephone calls using services like VoIP. The process is slow but it's moving along. And T-Mobile seems to be well placed to take advantage of it when the time comes.