There are lots of services out there these days that let you make VoIP calls on your cell phone. But how about video IP calls? That’s what Latvian startup Tivi is showing at VON.

Founded by three high school buddies, Tivi’s SIP software client turns smart phones running Symbian and Windows Mobile into VoIP and IP video phones. The video client lets users make video calls from a mobile phone to a PC. Tivi also offers a free softphone client that can be downloaded from the company’s website.

Calls are carried over a 3G cellular network. The software also supports WiFi, provided the phone is dual mode.

Tivi sells their software to carriers, so don’t expect to see any Tivi-branded handsets. The company is also planning Linux and Mac versions of its softphone.

“Click to talk” is a great idea. But when you click to talk and get a message that you need to download software, the natural inclination is to just move on. For companies doing business online, that translates to lost business.

UK-based Mexuar Communications aims to bridge that gap with its new “click to talk” Java-based Corraleta Technology SDK for Asterisk, which the company announced this week at Astricon.

Mexuar is promoting the software for applications like online sales and customer service, pay-per-call Web advertising, as well as for businesses that have an international customer base.

When site visitors click on a call icon, an end-to-end VoIP call is connected within seconds — there’s no requirement for a telephone at either end. All callers need is a headset. The software can also be used to trigger a conventional phone call. To help call centers operate efficiently, Mexuar can deliver customer information or initiate a database lookup for customer records.

The software resides on an Asterisk PBX and works with any Web browser — including Firefox and Safari — and requires a small piece of HTML code in the website. The pricing structure is simple — one license per Asterisk server. There are no ongoing fees or maintenance charges. Mexuar also offers a hosted service.

Mexuar’s technology opens up plenty of new business opportunities, according to Dean Collins, head of Business Development at Mexuar.

“Every click to talk solution previous to this uses ActiveX which limits them to Internet Explorer,” he explains. “The problem with Skype [click to call] is that you need to install software. All browsers use Java. Anybody using any browser anywhere in the world can make a free call with Mexuar.”

Sprint Nextel has a secret. You can use Sprint’s high speed wireless data service to make VoIP calls at a fraction of the cost of traditional cell phone calls. But the company isn’t going out of its way to tell you about it.

PeerMe hopes to change that with its new, free service that lets subscribers to Sprint’s mobile broadband make unlimited free VoIP calls between PeerMe users.

And PeerMe isn’t the only player promoting the cellphone as the center of the VoIP universe. This week Cambridge, MA-based iSkoot and UK-based Woize also announced free services for VoIP calling over cell networks.

PeerMe works on any Internet-enabled device from a PC to a mobile phone or PDA – just download the software from the company’s website. The company will also offer a low cost dial-out service, which will be rolled out in the next few weeks. Sprint’s mobile broadband service is $60/month for all-you-can-eat access.

It makes sense to piggyback on the device that’s already in everyone’s pocket.

“If you’re going to use something as your communication hub, you need to have it with you all the time,” says PeerMe founder and CEO Tom Lasater. That role is already filled by cellphones.

Building on the cellphone network also makes sense because WiFi isn’t really ready for prime time, Lassater contends.

Ubiquitous WiFi is “at least three years out,” he says. “Sprint has a few years’ head start.” With Sprint’s network, launched in 2005, subscribers can get high-speed Internet access anywhere. “It’s here, it’s now,” adds Lasater.

The cell phone industry business model is changing, according to Lasater. “The big break was Windows Mobile 5 [operating system for mobile devices],” he says. “This allows anybody to put any software on the mobile phones. Consumers can now download any software. Now you really do have a useful device in your hands.”

While cell carriers worry about cannibalizing their customer base with VoIP services, Lasater thinks they’re short-sighted. VoIP opens up whole new marketing opportunities for selling high-end devices and a one-stop shop for high speed Interent service.

“With unlimited broadband access, you can justify paying for the service,” he explains. “You can justify buying a high-end phone. There are lots of reasons why it would improve [carrier] business. The software is available, anyone can use it, so why not take advantage of it?”

The video phone has for the most part been a thing of the future and of ancient Jetson cartoons. It’s not that it hasn’t been available, it’s more that no one has come up with a good reason to use it.

But it looks that someone — specifically Packet8 — has taken steps to pitch video telephony in a way that makes it something more current, and useful. In short: Forget business, get it in the home.

Over the past couple of years, there have been a handful of video phones available using SIP that have gained very little traction. I’ve tried a couple for 5 minutes, said “Cool,” and never used them again.

For some reason, video telephony has been focused on the business sector, as though seeing the person you’re talking to on a 4-inch screen will make an important transaction go a bit more smoothly.

Wrong.

When it comes to work, I’ve got a look made for voice, not video. I won’t remember to brush my hair when the phone rings in order to appear business-like. And I won’t wear a tie to the office daily in the off-chance the CEO of AT&T calls to chat about the future of internet communications.

Here at Fall VON in Boston, Packet8 announced a new offering called the Freedom Unlimited VideoPhone Plan (Packet8 Video Phone Plans) tailor-made for the home. For $20 a month you can make unlimited video phone calls over a softphone client (made by Counterpath) on the Packet8 network.

It’s a good start.

Of course, with a small amount of tech knowledge and the right gear, any two parties can do what Packet8 offers for free. I’ve been videoing with my daughters back home in San Francisco nightly from my hotel room the past few days using the built-in cameras on the Mac I carry and the one that sits semi-permanently in our living room at home.

Using the built-in capabilities of iChat in OSX, it’s been relatively easy (save for the occasional glitch caused by the very poor broadband connection at the severely overpriced Sheraton I’m at) and free (save for the usurious $10 Mr. Sheraton is taking each day so that I can access the internet).

To connect this way, my wife and I have to arrange to be at the computer at the same time, usually by cell phone. Packet8’s offering removes this inconvenience in that I can just “call” home from my computer, and the computer in our living room will “ring.”

Ultimately though, the way video telephony will take off is to take it off both the phone and the computer. The right way is to make it part of the home entertainment system. The hardware to do that is already, for the most part, readily and cheaply available.

Imagine a typical eyeball camera attached to the top of your TV and connected directly to a home theater PC. Place a well-made microphone at your coffee table (Hello Polycom . . . you can do this . . . are you listening?).

Now, sit down with your kids on the sofa and click to call their grandma with a similar set-up. In an instant, and with a big enough TV, your mother-in-law is in your living room, sitting down in front of you. Click, and she’s gone with no need to call a cab.

We’ll see this because it makes sense and its cheap to do. But first we have to get over the idea of the video phone as a business tool (and as a way for geeks to geek).

You’ve made it part way, Packet 8. Now take the next step and make it something we can all use. Someone will soon.