VoIP is experiencing rapid growth in both the consumer and business markets, although people are adopting VoIP at higher rates. With major tech companies like Apple and Google entering the market with their own offerings, the sector is seeing interest from both telecom giants and internet startups.

The incredibly competitive terrain of the VoIP industry doesn’t seem to stop startups from competing with established players. It almost feels like a new VoIP app is released every two weeks. Just a few days ago, Janus Friis, one of the original co-founders of Skype, introduced Wire, a VoIP service that will come to mobile devices first.

Wire is certainly cool looking with a dark themed interface and customizable color options. It provides the basic features that users look for in a VoIP application, including voice and video calls, beautifully displayed online images, and integration for YouTube videos as well as SoundCloud audio clips. All videos that people share with their friends appear online, although Soundcloud clips currently only show a link that opens in a browser.

However, the launch of another VoIP application highlights the growing problem of data silos within the industry. Many of these startups are backed by venture capital and don’t have a viable business model to generate revenue, let alone profit. In addition to privacy and security concerns on the part of users, proprietary apps make it difficult for people to transfer their contact list or network of friends if they want to switch between apps.

There are hundreds of VoIP applications littering the desktop and mobile landscape, only a few of which are international in scope. Many VoIP applications are popular only in a particular geographic region and virtually unknown elsewhere. What they all have in common is that users cannot take their data with them if they want to leave the service. Instead of moving towards a future where everyone implements standard protocols like SIP or WebRTC, it seems that companies are determined to lock users down by holding their data hostage.

True data portability means consumers should be able to choose which user experience they prefer without having to switch networks entirely. In fact, in the current situation, any VoIP application that combines privacy, security, and data portability will have something unique that helps it stand out from its rivals. We can only hope that such an app is just around the corner, as WebRTC is finally on its way.