fring announced that it has further expanded its mVoIP (mobile VoIP) community by adding all Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 series devices to its list of compatible handsets. Now fringsters can choose to communicate for free between fring, Skype®, Google Talk™, MSN® Messenger, hundreds of SIP providers and twitter™ on about 300 Windows Mobile phones and pocket PCs in addition to 20+ Nokia devices over any 3G, GPRS or Wi-Fi Internet connection.
“fring is excited to let Windows Mobile users leverage fully integrated VoIP & multiple IM experience enabling calls, chat and real time presence via their mobile device’s internet capabilities, previously only possible on their PC,” said Avi Shechter, Co-founder and CEO, fring. “Like all fringsters, Windows Mobile users now have real mobile independence to make VoIP calls at no extra cost with rich presence indicators and hold multiple live chat sessions with their mobile, PC and landline contacts all from one integrated contact list.”
With fring, many Wi-Fi enabled but SIM-less Windows Mobile PDAs now effectively function as open VoIP phones. Like all fring supported devices, Internet access is leveraged to make VoIP phone calls, hold multiple live chat sessions and also make VoIP enabled PSTN phone calls through SkypeOut or hundreds of SIP-based applications like GizmoProject, SIPNET, VoipCheap, VoipStunt and FWD, among others.
fring is a free, downloadable mobile phone application that offers real mobile independence to roam freely between wireless networks (GPRS, 3G, Wi-Fi) and enjoy the benefits of multiple IM and SIP providers from one integrated contact list. fring is also enhanced with real-time contact availability (presence) to help users choose the best call provider before dialling, based on the recipient’s availability, reception quality and call cost, among other factors. fring saves mobile phone users money by utilising free Wi-Fi Internet access or fixed Internet data plans over 3G or GPRS, instead of costly mobile airtime (GSM) minutes.
Received via SMS from a friend or downloaded from the fring website within about a minute, fring is PC and operator independent, and does not require any proprietary hardware or air-time.
The fring application is currently in BETA and compatible with the following handset models: Nokia 60 series, N70 series, N80 series, N90 series (including N95), E60 and E70 series and Windows Mobile Series 5.0 and 6.0 handsets.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Deutsche Telekom has become the latest investor in Jajah - joining, among others, Intel and Sequoia Capital - as I reported today.
The [Austrian founders], who have since moved to America to develop their product, welcomed the latest addition to their third round of funding. [Daniel] Mattes said he aimed to follow Skype, the start-up bought by eBay in 2005 for $2.6bn (£1.4bn). “Our goal was to have 1 million users after a year, because that was what Skype had,” he said. “In fact, we had 2 million users in a year. We’re very excited.”
The premise of Jajah is pretty simple: log on to the website, enter your phone number and the one you want to call and it makes the connection over the internet. The point? Well, if you are both JaJah users on landline phones then it’s free. If you are on mobile phones, then it can turn an international call into two local calls - therefore drastically reducing the cost, particularly if you get lots of minutes free in your calling plan.
But, as I point out in the article, Jajah is far from being alone. Aside from Skype’s mobile VoIP offerings, there are a host of other companies trying to work out how to profit from internet calling and the huge mobile phone market - and many of them are developing complex systems which merge instant messaging and presence-based information with traditional internet telephony.
The rub, of course, comes in ease of use: everybody’s still trying to find the killer way to make mobile internet calling as easy as normal dialling. So would you use one of these services? What would convince you to?
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Global mobile internet service provider EQO Communications has launched EQO Mobile, a service that lets users make international long distance calls and exchange IM and SMSs on their mobile phones at local calling and messaging rates. EQO Mobile is powered by a software application that makes calling as easy as using as a standard phone address book. The application is free to download and installs itself automatically. EQO Mobile allows users to leverage their existing contact lists to build a network of EQO contacts and to easily invite these contacts to also use EQO. Currently EQO supports hundreds of mainstream mobile handsets and will initially be available in the following 20 countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Mobile VoIP for Nokia 3G Devices (Europe)
