Truphone Provides VoIP for Your Smartphone
We're on a VoIP roll here. Just check out yesterday's MINO Wireless post and you'll know what I mean.
At first glance, Truphone is just like any other mobile VoIP service. It lets you call up fellow Truphone users for free, or other numbers at a significantly lower cost, by routing your calls over the Internet, instead of your service provider's cellular network. Truphone only works with WiFi. None of these features are exactly groundbreaking.
What Truphone hopes to attract you with is its seamless integration with The Cloud, a large WiFi network dominant in the UK, Germany, and sweden. Currently, Truphone only works with some high-end Nokia phones, but that list is sure to expand.
And even if you're nowhere near The Cloud or the US (the other place where Truphone to normal line calls work), Truphone-to-Truphone calls are still free. As long as you're within a hotspot of course.
Thanks to Marc for the heads-up.
Tim, Truphone
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:32 am #
Hello. I’m afraid I can’t agree with you on that: there is, in fact, quite a lot of ground-breaking stuff in Truphone. Not least of these is that Truphone was the first provider to deliver true VoIP (end-to-end IP) on mobile phones. By this I mean that the entire call is over an IP connection; there is no GSM element to a call, or callback.
A major difference in Truphone’s approach from the others is that it integrates deeply with the internet telephony functionality that comes with those handsets on which it works. This brings major benefits in terms of battery life, voice quality, and integration with the phone’s normal functionality (dialler, address book, SMS messaging). Again, this is groundbreaking stuff.
The Cloud roaming agreement dates from December last year and many good things have happened since then. Most notably, Truphone has announced version 3 of its service. While still beta overall, it introduces Truphone over 3G, presence functionality (know who else is online) and SMS-over-IP. Visit http://www.truphone.com for more information.
Cheers,
Tim
Cheers,
Tim.
Rico
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:22 am #
Thanks very much Time for your comment. To be honest, now that you’ve expounded on the process, it does seem more groundbreaking, especially when you talk about the more seamless integration with the devices’ i-telephony functionality.
The reason why I wasn’t “amazed” by the fact that Truphone works through “real” internet telephony is because that’s how I’d always VoIP with my PDA phone. So I guess I let my personal experience affect my writing.
I’m very excited about Truphone 3′s new features, especially since it will work over cellular networks which are currently more widespread than Wi-Fi (at least from where I’m from). Do keep us up-to-date on the latest developments with your VoIP-based service.