In the beginning was the word, and it was chattered from the treetops, chanted in the darkness of smoky caves, sung across the plains and dripped poisonously into ears. It was a stentorian bark across the battlefield, a sensual whisper in the moonlight, and a gasp of new life . . .

And then Mr Watson was summoned for his chat, and everything changed. It’s not that all those things above no longer happened, it’s rather that with the coming of the telephone they happened more, plus louder, faster and, crucially, further than ever before.

Words and communication are what our society is built upon and, generally, the better you are at communicating, the more successful you are. Equally, this human need to talk continues to drive innovation, generating huge sums of money or prestige for those who find ways to make it cheaper, better, and more convenient.

It’s little wonder, therefore, that the mobile phone has rapidly gone from being a heavy ostentatious symbol of decadence for people with sports cars, into the third essential item that no-one leaves home without – Keys? Wallet? Phone? (and even that hierarchy is being eroded).

And the service providers have been there guiding and nurturing us throughout. They let us throw our voices down their networks, and have introduced us to new ways of communicating by text and picture (transforming the ways we think, and our language in the process).

But, as lovely as they are, none of this has happened for free (especially over really long distances), and since the word is too powerful to be constrained by the barrier of cost, it’s inevitable that it should have eventually found a cheaper outlet – currently the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Skype was the first to take the VoIP concept and turn it into something truly useful and usable. It is now used by millions of users around the world to speak (and videoconference) easily and cheaply via the internet.

This trend is set to continue with Google Voice which allows users to link their many work/home/personal numbers together under one Google Voice number, and do all manner of ‘cool things’ with it (like seamless switching of calls mid-conversation, for example from landline to mobile so you can take your office conversation out to lunch, or from one mobile to another if the first battery is about to die). Most worryingly for the networks, however, is that calls to and from the Google Voice number are also likely to be free.

So, given that service providers are frequently little more than data pipes for transporting the word, and given that we're seeing the rapid development of virtually free pipes (soon to be made more ubiquitous in the UK with the government's aspirations of broadband for all, funded by the new tax), what role is there left for them?

3 has been the first to respond to the VoIP threat by embracing it. After all, “if you can't beat 'em . . .” It is currently the only network to offer free Skype calls from its handsets, meaning customers can use their phones without paying 3 anything at all (even on pay-as-you-go phones for which you theoretically never need to buy a top-up). Others, like O2, are transforming themselves into a lifestyle choice and offering services beyond basic communications – witness its drive to create the O2 experience (spearheaded by the O2 arena), and the launch of the new family organiser, the joggler.

Interesting news from Vodafone and T-mobile, on the other hand, is that they are looking at femtocells – home wireless points that connect a user’s mobile phone with their broadband network. These not only provide the homeowner with flawless mobile connectivity at home (without the need for the network to provide costly main masts), but their integration with home broadband must surely mean that a VoIP offering is also on the way.

So what next? The word will out, by whatever means necessary, and whilst it’s too simple to say that they need to diversify or die, the networks do need to innovate and become more responsive to the needs of their users (something which, historically, hasn’t always unduly troubled them).

One thing is clear, as time goes on, speech really will be freer than ever before.