"mvoip" via 버섯돌이 in Google Reader

Fring updates their servers

2007-04-30T17:07:00Z

Fring, whose core technology mainly resides on the server side, just updated it:

1.SIP improvements
• Improved voice quality
• More functioning services within your SIP application
2. Some Skype users may have experienced SPAM over the past few days.
Fortunately this can be avoided:
• fring is auto-blocking all Skype SPAM centrally (blocking messages from people who are not my contact list) so you won’t be bothered on your mobile phone.
• To block SPAM also on your PC application, just go to tools –> options –> privacy and select ‘allow calls/chat from my contacts’

Great job.

Technorati Tags: fring, luca filigheddu, mobile voip

Somebody Gets the Skype Mobile Picture Right.

2007-04-26T21:19:20Z

Garrett Smith today issued a post "No Wonder Skype Dragged Their Feet" where he calls "... Skype's decision to not dive head first into mobile VoIP a smart one". He blames the mobile carriers:

We as consumers can talk about mobile VoIP, how cool it is, how much we want it. Hardware manufacturers can make all of the devices they want. Last mile service providers can come up with the killer app. But until the people who own the network, the cellular carriers, [and] the WiFi network carriers, embrace mobile VoIP and the business economics behind it, we are going to continue to hear, see, and feel the mobile VoIP “ban”.

Based on my (largely North American) experience we have a long road to hoe before we see mobile VoIP take hold. Certainly over 2.xG wireless networks, latency issues work against it; and 3G networks will only be viable when both the economics are right and, as Garrett states, the carriers commit. (At the moment 500MB per month of data plan on Rogers would cost me $1,600 per month.)

The most immediate opportunity should lie with WiFi networks where I have had good "call quality" success with calls placed via Truphone and, more recently, Fring. But, as of today,. the major Canadian HotSpot network (in Starbucks, other popular coffee shop and restaurant chains, airports, etc.) cost $0.15 per minute; they have a couple of .(600 min., 90 min) monthly subscription plans at $.04-$.05 per minute with a $0.10 per minute overage charge. However, they:

are very limited geographically
do not recognize the login window through the browser on my Nokia N-series phones; they do work with the N800 Internet Tablet since it uses the (Linux-based) Opera browser.

I have never been able to get the local Toronto "Muni" WiFi network (Toronto Hydro Telecom) to work beyond getting a SSID on any of these devices. So, in addition to the Canadian Hotspot choices above, I am left with free WiFi on my home network or at free WiFi locations, including some commercial establishments (hotels, a few restaurants and "neighborhood" coffee shops), guest access at businesses and friends' homes.

I made my first VoIP call in early 1996 while working at Quarterdeck where we had developed a VoIP product. It has taken over ten years to build and integrate landline VoIP into an infrastructure that is acceptable to consumers and businesses. A warning to VC's seeing mobile VoIP business plans: the infrastructure is just not there yet for major mobile VoIP market penetration, neither technologically nor economically.

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Talk cheaply now, with Talk-Now and JAJAH

2007-04-25T12:45:43Z

iotum had a pretty big day yesterday. We announced that we're teaming up with JAJAH to deliver Talk-Now to JAJAH customers, and to JAJAH enable users of the Talk-Now application on BlackBerry handsets. For iotum, this means access to a substantial and large audience of potential Talk-Now users. And for JAJAH, it's an opportunity to satisfy growing enterprise demand for their services. According to JAJAH's Frederik Hermann:

For JAJAH, this brings added value and functionality to our Enterprise Mobile customers. Companies have been coming to JAJAH and asking us to help them lower their telephone bills - some of which are in the millions of dollars. Now with the iotum / JAJAH solution, workgroups using Blackberry's save two important ways. First, they can tell who is available to talk just by looking at their BlackBerry screen, thus eliminating phone tag - and second their calls will only cost pennies a minute.

Frederik's comments about the benefits of the iotum / JAJAH partnership are dead-on. With Talk-Now, adoption happens at the work-group level. One person brings the application into their environment, and invites their circle of business colleagues to participate, setting off a wave of adoption within a specific business or social network. Now, those workgroups have one more reason to adopt Talk-Now, which is inexpensive JAJAH calling!

Some customers will save a substantial amount of money; especially those in places like Europe where the incoming call isn't charged, and those who are able to purchase calling plans that provide unlimited incoming calls for a monthly flat fee, such as the Rogers unlimited incoming calls plans here in Canada.

For now, what this will mean is that later this week we will push an update to Talk-Now users that contains a simple user interface modification; when you determine that someone is available to talk, you will be able to call with JAJAH instead of the cellular network. Then your phone will ring, and the other parties phone will ring (just the way JAJAH works today on the web), except that you will have initiated the call from your mobile handset. Talk-Now users who aren't JAJAH customers already will have the option to sign up from within the Talk-Now application too.

When I first chatted with Roman Scharf and Don Thorson in the spring of 2006, they were just launching their new service. At the time, Roman was tossing out the label Voice 2.0 in his conversations, and we discovered that we had mutually arrived at a very similar vision, but from different paths.

I had the good fortune to meet up with Frederik at the Etel conference this past February. In conversations during the subsequent weeks, our teams discussed many more presence enabled applications, including a wishlist item for many Talk-Now users, which are presence enabled conference calls. Yesterday's announcement is just a first small step.

Writing yesterday, GigaOM's Paul Kapustka has called this announcement a "peanut-butter-and-chocolate" matchup, which is what we both see too. It's a win for us, a win for JAJAH, and most importantly a win for our mutual customers. Hope you all like it!

Vodafone and Orange are blocking Skype and similar services

2007-04-25T15:22:06Z

Red Herring reports that U.K. mobile phone network operators Vodafone and Orangehave begun blocking Skype and other low-cost IP phone services over cellular networks. This policy is being implemented via phones such as the Nokia95, which has built-in VoIP capabilities that have been disabled by both Vodafone and Orange. Obviously, the issue here is fear on [...]

Which mobile Skype client will win?

2007-04-25T08:33:06Z

Updated: Skype’s lack of desire to release a mobile client has opened a small window of opportunity for a few start-ups - iSkoot, Mobivox, Fring, and EQO. These companies are creating clients that run the Skype service inside a server farm, and allow you to make and receive Skype calls on your mobiles. It is no surprise, that they have received major infusion of venture dollars.

The latest to get a big fat round of funding is EQO, that just announced that it has raised $9 million from Venture West, Growth Works and BDC Capital. The company has raised over $12.5 million in funding.

EQO is also benefiting from VC interest in mobile VoIP, though I have some serious questions about the potential payoff. The big question, however, is that which of these three will emerge as an eventual winner. Will it be Skype, that will finally release a mobile client of its own? (Skype currently offers a Windows Mobile version of its client, though its functionality is limited.) Have your say in our poll.

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Vodafone and Orange take away VoIP from Nokia N95

2007-04-19T09:19:52Z

Really, it is quite disappointing. Since long, the customers were swayed by Nokia’s advertisement regarding the availability of VoIP services in their N95 devices. Regrettably, Vodafone and Orange have deactivated VoIP calls on the N95 device.

It means that the customers of Vodafone and Orange will not be able to find VoIP option in their N95 device since Nokia has removed it at the behest of these mobile operators.

Perhaps, both the operators have taken this step considering the fact that the ensuring cheap calls via VoIP means loss of revenue for them.

We should not forget that VoIP calls can be charged as data rates when the customers are outside WiFi areas. It will accrue revenue for the operators.

Fring 3.0: interview with one of the co-founders

2007-03-27T13:27:00Z

A few months ago I reviewed Fring in this blog, calling it a "pure mobile voip service".

Fring is a mobile VoIP service (in beta) by which you can make and receive calls through your mobile phone by using the 3G data network.

In conclusion, I think Fring is a great step forward for the FMC world. Fring is a pure VoIP service and, unlike other competitors, they provide you with a presence-based client capable of enabling you to call even your Skype or Gtalk friends. I'm going to try a Fring - GTalk call right now... I'll post an update to this post with my comments on the call quality etc. pretty soon.

During VON Spring last week I finally met Boaz Zilberman , one of the co-founders of Fring. I can say our chat has been really interesting, first of all because Boaz is an expert of the IP world, having worked for Radvision for a couple of years before joining Fring, secondly because Boaz has well explained to me how Fring works and why it's different from competitors. The other co-founder instead, Alex Nerst, is the former co-founder of ICQ, the historic IM service.UPDATE: The other two co-founders are Avi Shechter, CEO (this is the guy that was the former CEO of ICQ, the historic IM service) and Alex Nerst, CTO with background in VoIP from his previous start-up. (thanks Boaz for pointing this out).

First of all, he explained to me the real value of Fring in terms of technology. Unlike other players in the mobile VoIP market, Fring is the only one which really uses the data connection of your mobile phone to make phone calls, wether it is Wifi or 3G. As already explained in my previous post, they use a proprietary protocol from the mobile phone to the Fring's servers to handle voice packets. This way most part of the job is performed by Fring's servers, allowing final users to save bandwidth and battery power on their device. Skype already demonstrated that users don't care if they are using a proprietary or a standard protocol, they just want a service that simply works. And Fring do.

He also explained to me that their approach let them do what Skype has not done yet, that is letting users to make and receive phone calls from a Nokia mobile device using the data connection.

Supporting SIP, Boaz continued, was an important step that, in my opinion, makes Fring the most complete multi-protocol IM VOIP client for mobile phones. They've just published a video explaining how to use Fring to make SIP calls.

It was funny that during our chat I've received an IM message from a Gtalk user to my Fring client on my Nokia N80i. Boaz told me that in terms of usage, VoIP is secondary to IM, that is the most used feature of Fring so far.

What about business? How do they make money?
They have different models in mind. First of all, they are willing to license their service to service providers and VoIP operators which would like to provide a mobile VoIP experience to their users. Vonage, I'd say, would be the ideal one in this perspective. In addition, they are also thinking of a model based on advertising, but I understood it's too early for this.

In conclusion, I really recommend to take a careful look at this service. It's really different from competitors and I do believe that this fact will let them make interesting moves and bring real innovation to this market, that with players like Nimbuzz, Talkster and Gizmo is becoming always more crowded.

I encourage Boaz to add comments to this post if he wants to better clarify some points or add something that I forgot.

Technorati Tags: avi shechter, boaz zilberman, fring, gizmo, luca filigheddu, nimbuzz, talkster, VON

Truphone to offer FREE calls from mobile

2007-03-27T19:46:00Z

Today Truphone, one of the players in the mobile VoIP market, announced that they are offering FREE mobile to landline calls from USA to 40 countries worldwide. This is an extension of an existing plan by which this option is available from UK.

This option will be available from April to June '07.

What to say? They are investing to acquire customers, as many others do. I can say that using a VOIP service from a dual mode handset is definitely fantastic, but unfortunately the wifi coverage is not so huge.

BTW, Truphone is the only service I was unable to setup on my N80i. I don't know why, but it doesn't work. Anyone at Truphone can help ? I haven't had enough time to meet someone from Truphone during VON, but I'm still available by email.

In the meantime, take a look at their website for more information on this offer.

Technorati Tags: free calls, luca filigheddu, truphone

North America to Embrace Voice over WiFi

2007-02-24T14:51:22Z

According to eMarketer the North American Market is going to be the biggest Voice over WiFi market in the world.

This has to be great news for my pal Steve Howe at Earthlink who is closing in on unveiling their new WiFi phone shortly, as well other WISP (Wireless Internet Service Providers) like Boingo.

For companies in the handset space like clients Nokia and FONAV, E28 which has a dual mode and FMC ready Linux based Smartphone, plus others like UT-Starcom the future is very bright here.

Off the bat my choice for a WiFi phone is not phone per se, but a real Internet device. It's the Nokia N800 which allows me to use Google Talk and Gizmo Project easily to make and take calls. With the eventual new updated BlueTooth that can make it acts just like a mobile phone when I'm in range of a hotspot it will be so sweet.

Mobile Widgetized VoIP + VoIM Clients

2007-02-26T03:30:00Z

Someone needs to go to design school. Widgets on a smartphone? Isn't the screen small enough already? Add widgets, and you just might need a magnify glass. Nevertheless, if you subscribe to the tantalizing idea of straining your eyesight, Netvibes will have a mobile version, Netvibes2Go, of their web2.0 application, which has widgets for a variety of VoIM clients. Still, anyone who has actually used applications on a smartphone/ PDA knows how awkard the experience is. I'd rather use a VoIP service like Jajah or Mino Wireless from my smartphone. They're relatively simple to use and don't require a lot of screen real estate.

Mobilkom launches MVoIP service

2007-02-16T11:00:58Z

While T-Mobile CEO, Hamid Akhavan gave his contradictory views on Mobile VoIP (MVoIP) applications, an Austria VoIP start-up has silently launched their Mobile VoIP service creating further debate on this latest form of VoIP.

According to TeleGeography, Mobilkom Austria has made a beta release of their Mobile VoIP service known as A1 over IP. It is under trial involving nearly 2,000 beta users. So, we should look for the public version in near future.

Mobilkom CEO, Boris Nemsic says,

The use of VoIP is one of the hottest trends at the moment. As innovation leader, we will actively co-shape the further development of this technology. The commercial launch of A1 over IP is the first step in this direction.

The company claims the A1 over IP would enable users to make free internet telephony calls from their normal mobile number.

In the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, T-Mobile said that time is not conducive for MVoIP services as of now. It has far less impact and less prevalent as those running over PCs. There are also technical issues that make mobile VoIP services difficult to implement.

T-Mobile Doubts VoIP Will Be Big

2007-02-14T12:16:03Z

Could this be a sign that the T-Mobile trial in Seattle isn't faring very well?

Or it could just be the denial that VoIP, FMC, UMA and all that is IP is just not really understood very well by T-Mobile.

Mobile VoIP has far less impact: T-Mobile

2007-02-15T07:34:52Z

Time is not conducive for mobile VoIP services as of now. It has far less impact and not so widespread as those operating over PCs. There are all sorts of technical issues that make mobile VoIP services difficult to implement. Hamid Akhavan, CEO of T-Mobile expressed his views on MVoIP applications at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona.

Talking to the reporters in the sideline of 3GSM conference, Akhavan said that technical issues related to how networks pass on IP address of mobile users have not been completely resolved.

He has also pointed out,

Emergency phone service and ‘always on’ connectivity are also big issues, since staying online takes up bandwidth on pricey mobile networks. And then there’s the cost. When people talk about VoIP, they think free. With any mobile service provided over the Internet, you’re going to need to buy a data package.

The mobile voip application has been under intense debate ever since Hutchison 3G lauched their mobile VoIP services last year in Europe.

Lots More Mobile VOIP to Choose From

2007-02-09T15:23:56Z

Have you noticed that it's raining mobile VOIP these days? Information Week asserts that VOIP has finally hit the mainstream wireless market and points to Fring, JaJah Mobile and Windows Mobile 6 as indicators who've all had new announcements this week. Truphone is also part of that crowd.

Tom Keating reviews Jajah Mobile on his blog. Check it out.

As a consumer, I'm happy there are options. But I'm also a consumer who's not really ready. This mobile VOIP stuff means more decisions. What's most important to me? Being in touch with my Skype contacts, my Google Talk buddies, my JaJah list or some other list somewhere? Do I like downloading an application to my phone or would I rather not–too finicky? Do I need multiple phone numbers for my cell phone? I like to use the Wi-Fi capability of my nifty Nokia N80i, but cruising around my usual haunts in town I've yet to find a free access point (obviously I need to get out more). The only place I've used mobile VOIP is from the comfort of my own desk.

Truphone breaches the gap between Mobile and Web VoIP

2007-02-09T06:16:05Z

UK-based MVoIP (Mobile VoIP) service provider, Truphone has breached the gap between web and mobile VoIP by introducing a new service, which would enable the Truphone users to directly talk with the Google Talk users. See the video demonstration here.

Launched in September 2006, Truphone has emerged as one of the most popular Mobile VoIP applications brining free VoIP services to the WiFi enabled Nokia phones.

As of now, it is supporting Nokia’s E60, E61, E70 and N80 Internet Edition handsets. The company plans to add 25 more phones for its MVOIP applications by the end of this year.

In a statement, Truphone CEO, James Tagg revealed,

Interoperability between Google Talk and Truphone means the web/mobile VoIP divide has been bridged. Google Talk can call Truphone, and Truphone can call Google Talk.

The truphone is free downloadable software. The calls between Truphone headsets are always free. The recently announced Truphone-Google Talk interoperability is also free. However, the company fixes charges a little amount for other phones.The new service would attract the customers who look for VoIP and IM convergence.

iSoftphone review

2007-02-07T11:32:00Z

A few days ago I've posted some comments on iSoftphone, a MacOSX VoIP client skinned with the iPhone look and feel. Om is looking forward to my review, so here it is.

As previously said, iSoftphone is nothing more than an iPhone-themed version of Megafon, announced last September from XNet communications.

After launched, you are asked to configure your SIP account. I can use a CallCentric account or add my own VoIP provider. I've tried it with Abbeyphone.

In general, this softphone offers only basic functions. No contact list, no presence, no supplementary services, no number auto-completion and so on, and the only part of the user interface similar to the iPhone is the border. Nothing else.

There are a few secondary windows, for call logs, address book and preferences. iSoftphone doesn't use the MacOSX address book, but you have to add your contacts manually in its internal address book. Absolutely unusable, since there isn't any importing option. On the contrary, you can call any of your contacts with iSoftphone through the contextual menu of the MacOSX Address Book.

In conclusion, iSoftphone is easy to use and looks nice but it's far from any competitor, like CounterPath. This said, it's definitely overpriced since the price (99$) is crazy for such softphone and the iPhone-like theme is far from being really similar to the Apple iPhone.

UPDATE: John Sheehy, XNet's Product Manager, kindly contacted me to inform that there are many ongoing activities on iSoftphone, like adding new functionalities and making it more usable. Thanks John for the update, keep us informed.

Technorati Tags: isoftphone, megafon

Sitofono now supports mobile phones

2007-02-06T09:08:33Z

The big news is that Sitofono is now supporting mobile phones in US and Canada. In other words, the customers can entry their mobile numbers at the site of the company that has sitofono links. Then proceed for VoIP calls.

With Sitofono, the customers of both USA and Canada can make unlimited free calls from their mobile phones anywhere in the world.

Abeeynet is going to launch a Symbian application for Sitofono. A nice proposition… This guy explains it would be a Jajah-like service.

Sitofono goes Mobile

2007-02-05T00:35:00Z

I'm happy to announce that Sitofono goes mobile for US and Canada users.

This means that you can now point your mobile phone's browser at www.companyname.sitofono.com, insert you mobile phone number in the edit box and call the company which owns that Sitofono from your mobile phone completely for FREE.

In addition, and this is the cool part of the story, any Sitofono's customer in US and Canada can now make unlimited FREE calls worldwide from their mobile phone by using their Sitofono. You can find a tip for doing that in this post.

In the following weeks Abbeynet will also release a Symbian application in order to make everything described above much easier in terms of user experience.

Please stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: abbeynet, click to call, luca filigheddu, sitofono mobile

SitoFono for Mobile

2007-02-05T14:49:58Z

Our pal Luca has migrated SitoFono to the mobile world. Basically it's a click to call solution for mobile phones so you can enter your number and connect to a person or company that has SitoFono in place.

iSoftphone, a new VoIP softphone for MacOSX

2007-02-05T21:21:00Z

XNet Communications just released a new iPhone-like MacOSX softphone, iSoftphone. It's completely integrated with the MacOSX environment, like the address book, and aims to become a standard softphone for the MacOSX world.

Taking a deeper look to the company's website, it seems it's just an iPhone-skinned version of their Megafon, introduced last September.

You can buy it for 99$. The price seems a little bit high, even if MacOSX users are usually used to pay to get valuable software.

I'm just downloading it. I'll post more comments as soon as I try it. I'm just wondering... what about a possible legal action from Apple ? User interface is cool... but it's far from being innovative :-)

Technorati Tags: apple, isoftphone, luca filigheddu, megafon, xnet communications