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Services like Facebook could thwart Skype’s long term plans with operators due to larger community sizes and more value to users according to Roamware’s Abraham Punnoose.

Speaking to RCR Unplugged, Punnoose the vice president of marketing and business development at Roamware – which provides roaming service solutions to mobile operators – said that while Skype’s short term value was strong, it may not be a sustainable model going forward if Facebook or any other large social network or web community decided to enter the VoIP fray.

Roamware holds an estimated 60% market share of the voice and data roaming segments for GSM, 3G and CDMA technology platforms with offerings deployed across 140 countries with over 390 mobile operator networks, so it knows a thing or two about large scale networking.

Headquartered in San Jose, CA (USA), with key regional offices in Amman, Brussels, Bangalore, Dublin, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Mumbai, New Delhi and Singapore, the firm’s main beat is in helping its operator clients incorporate value added services which will help increase customer loyalty and stickiness – thereby increasing profitability and competitive positioning.

Skype, said Punnoose had the current advantage of convergence, having both a web and mobile product. But Skype doesn’t work in certain countries and also has issues in certain regions on 3G. Moreover, most people, Punnoose pointed out, had just about a quarter of their contacts on Skype, while the majority remained on sites like Facebook, which could potentially work with operators to extend VoIP calling to one’s entire social network at the click of a button.

“Skype will be just another application,” predicted Punnoose adding “social networks are the next Skype.”