Monthly Archives: March 2007

Call Landlines for Free with Truphone

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In an announcement today, UK-based Truphonelaunches free calling from mobile Truphone customers in the US to landlines everywhere (well, 40 countries worldwide actually). This program is an extension of their UK launch promotion and will be in effect until the end of June. So if you really want give a great mobile VOIP application a whirl, now’s your chance. US customers have always been able to talk to other Truphone users for free but now they can call regular landlines too.

You can download Truphone for your Nokia handset here:
http://www.truphone.com/downloads/downloads.tru

Watch a YouTube video of this press release here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK9wuSFoSqQ

And finally, read the whole press release:

March 27th 2007 – Orlando, FL & London, UK – Owners of Wi-Fi-equipped Nokia smartphones will be able to make free international calls from the USA to landlines in 40 countries throughout April, May and June, mobile internet telephony pioneer Truphone announced today. The announcement extends and enlarges Truphone’s current price promotion [ending on March 31st], during which customers have been able to make free mobile Voice over IP (VoIP) calls across the USA and Canada.

“We’re delighted to be making it so attractive for people to try internet telephony on their mobile handset, instead of being tied to their computer,” said James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO. “The convenience of a normal, mass market cellular handset and free international calls is an unbeatable combination for the consumer.”
Countries to which any on-net Truphone user worldwide may now make free calls to landlines include China (landlines and mobiles), Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey), Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and most European Union countries.

Tariffs to some paid-for numbers may have changed from the previous promotional period. Truphone’s full tariff document is available at www.truphone.com.

Under the terms of the new promotion, free Truphone calls can be made to the following countries (applies to Truphone calls to landlines only, unless otherwise stated): Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo only), Canada, Chile, China (Landline and Mobile), Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong (Landline & Mobile), Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea (South), Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City & Monterrey only), Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama City, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia (Moscow Central & St Petersburg only), Singapore (Landline & Mobile), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, US Virgin Islands and USA (landline & mobile).

About the Truphone service
Truphone enables Wi-Fi equipped mobile phones to make 100% VoIP calls at either zero or very low cost to the caller, by using the SIP standard and the Internet to route network traffic, rather than traditional mobile phone networks. Truphone-to-Truphone and Truphone-to-SIP number calls are always free, with Truphone calls to other numbers charged at cheaper rates than those charged by mobile operators and often at lower cost than even a conventional fixed line.
There is no monthly subscription, no inbound charges and billing is via pre-pay. Sign-up and top up are done via the web site. Customers get Truphone by downloading a small piece of free software over the air to their phone. When a Truphone-equipped handset is not in Wi-Fi range it reverts to being a normal mobile phone, with calls routed over GSM as usual.

Skype Customer Support–better late than, well never?

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I posted a question to Skype technical support (I made sure that it wasn’t already answered in their Knowledge Base). It took over two weeks, but they did get back to me. Better late than never I guess. Honestly, whenever I fill in one of those web forms, I’m sure I’m sending my question into a black hole. I didn’t expect Skype to get back to me, but they did. So, if you’re not in any kind of hurry, go ahead and ask away.

Using VOIP in the real world

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One of the things I try to do on this blog is try things–new consumer VOIP products, downloads, etc. You can get commentary on industry news like who’s buying who, or who just closed shop, in places like GigaOm.

Admittedly, I don’t get to try a lot of hardware, just software mostly, but if you’re looking for that kind of thing, VOIP and Gadgets or Smith on VOIP are good bets.

But this week Andy Abramson, in Living with Softphones, posted a neat-and-tidy roundup of some VOIP tools he’s been using, and I like it because he lists only what he’s used (or experimented with), and explains how he uses them. I think this kind of post is really useful. Don’t you really wanna know just how you’re supposed to use all this stuff in the real world? I know I do. Thanks A. Alec Saunders also posts quite often on VOIP adventures with his Blackberry, and Phoneboy writes about handsets he’s using (because all other hardware is just too boring). Check them both out too.

For my part, I use on a regular basis:

Skype: for chat and calls to Skype buddies
Gizmo: for general softphone calling
PhoneGnome: for long distance calling to reg phones
SightSpeed: for video calls
GrandCentral: for simplifying inbound calling. I’m using it to funnel calls through my Gizmo account.
Fring: for mobile calls to Skype buddies (still experimenting mostly)

Since I cancelled Vonage in August, I haven’t signed on with another subscriber service. However, I’ll be trying one soon.

Sippin’ with Fring

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Luca got the scoop on this one this morning. (Or is it afternoon for him?) Fring now works with SIP services like Gizmo Project, VoipCheap, VoipStunt and Free World DialUp. It’s still in beta mode, but I’m going to download it today and see what’s what (handy to do on my Nokia N80i).

Fring is a free application for your mobile phone that lets you talk with fring, Skype, GoogleTalk, MSN and now SIP-based applications over VoIP, GSM, WiFi and PSTN networks.

I’ve used it most with my Skype buddy list. On my phone, I can see who’s available on Skype and who’s not, etc.

At present, fring is only available on certain Nokia handsets (Symbian 8 – Series 60 and N Series phones). See a visual list of compatible handsets on their web site (look under “Minimum Requirements”).

Say Hello to Vlip Interactive Video Community from SightSpeed

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I just had a look at SightSpeed’s brand spanking new video community called Vlip, and not surprisingly, Peter the SightSpeed Guy is in there like a dirty shirt (or t-shirt, I should say). It looks like a sort of video message board where you can post your own videos and allow others to reply to you with their own cinematic responses. Just like SightSpeed, the video generation tools are built right in–all you need is a web cam.

They say it’s for adults only, 18 years and older, but I don’t know how they’ll enforce that exactly. The terms of use indicate they want to see respect for all opinions, but they will police the posts and take down vlips considered inappropriate.

You can read the official Vlip Manifesto on Peter Csathy’s blog (SightSpeed CEO). The VOIPGirl doesn’t vlip yet, but stranger things have happened.

Try GrandCentral Web Buttons

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The newest release of GrandCentral has some great (and useful) features. I’m doubly excited becuase GrandCentral is available to me now as a Canadian. They’ve added web buttons to their line-up. Not a breakthrough feature, but one that has come to be expected. Basically, you add a button to your website or blog that visitors to click to call you (on your GrandCentral number of course).

What’s great is that you can connect with people this way OR you can send them to a voice recording. Like this:

GrandCentral gives some other examples:

  • eBay auction: GrandCentral button can send callers to a voicemail with a description of the item on sale. Callers can leave a message and the GrandCentral user can decide whom to call back.
  • MySpace page: profile can let people calling without sharing GrandCentral user’s phone number

Time and time again, web marketers show that if you can get your vistors to interact with you (your site), like answer surveys, click a button, answer a question, you’re more likely to make sales, or whatever else your site goals are.

I’ll be adding oneto my About page on this blog, and to my info site www.quickstartvoip.com.

New Hictu!

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I was just thinking about Hictu the other day and I went to have a look at it again. Next thing you know, Luca tells me that they’ve released a new version. Read more here.

I haven’t been using Hictu. There’s been just so many new tools to try. And that’s exactly the issue. In a nutshell, Hictu allows you to see the online presence of contacts on Skype, Gizmo, Abbeyphone, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, Sitophono, GTalk, AIM, Jabber. They call it a presence dashboard.