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VoIP On My iPhone
While most iPhone users are stuck with an iBrick this morning as Apple’ servers can’t complete the last step of the upgrade process, those of us smart enough to take the unofficial upgrade route 24 hours ago are happily trying out new App Store Apps. This morning I turned my iPhone into a VoIP phone by installing the new Truphone iPhone app (Truphone company profile).
One of the iPhone 2.0 restrictions that is unfortunate is the fact that VoIP applications aren’t allowed to use the cell/data connection - all that 3G bandwidth could be put to great use. But VoIP apps are allowed on the phone and can use Wifi when it’s available.
While at first it seems that the fact these apps can’t tap into the 3G stream is a real problem, in fact even the allowed activity, VoIP over Wifi, is extremely useful. For example - AT&T mobile coverage at my house/office is very bad, so I rarely use my iPhone for calls there. Instead I just pick up my landline (which is a Vonage VoIP phone). With VoIP over Wifi I can still use my mobile phone to make calls.
I installed the Truphone app this morning and registered online. Calls to any landline anywhere in the world are just 6 cents per minute, and you get a $4 credit to start when you first download the app. Truphone accesses your contact list to allow for one click calls in the same way as normal calls. The differences you’ll notice v. normal cell calls: you must have a Wifi connection to make calls, you can’t receive calls, if a normal voice call comes in your Truphone call is immediately terminated (this really sucks), you can’t use the speakerphone and your “favorite” numbers aren’t imported.
One really excellent feature is the fact that when you call someone, they see your normal caller id.
The video below shows the call process and I also play a voicemail I left through the app - the sound quality was excellent.
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Cheap Calls! Truphone Raises £16.5 million In Series B
UK-based Truphone, a VoIP service provider for Wifi/data enabled handsets, announced a £16.5 million ($32.7 million) second round of financing today, adding to the £12.5 million ($24.5 million) they raised a little over a year ago.
What’s that $50+ million being used for? Cheap calls! Like Fring and a slew of others, Truphone allows free calls initiated from between Wifi/data enabled handsets and/or computers, or cheap VoIP-to-anywhere calls.
Truphone has a technology advantage that allows for better sound quality and longer battery life, but at the cost of easier carrier blocking relative to Fring. But they’re winning against carriers in court, so the blocking issue isn’t hurting them as much.
Notably absent from the funding announcement was any mention of cofounder Alexander Straub or previous investor Straub Ventures (the venture fund still lists Truphone as an investment, however). I’m betting there’s an interesting story there. (Update: see comment below from Straub, although I find it odd neither he nor his fund were mentioned in the press release.)
Update2: TechCrunch UK has more on the pricing structure Truphone is using to attack carriers.
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Truphone Wins Against T-Mobile
Truphone , which offers free internet phone calls over WiFi networks, has encountered quite a few road blocks in their journey toward growing their VOIP startup.
Some carriers purposely disabled VOIP features used by Truphone on their Nokia N95s. VOIP has been labeled a possible method for terrorists to communicate untracked. Finally, T-Mobile refused to interconnect with Truphone’s network and VOIP carriers in general, making it impossible to call T-Mobile numbers. The rule didn’t apply to fellow VOIP startup Jajah, in which T-Mobile was an investor, because Jajah makes the final connection to callees using the existing phone network instead of VOIP.
Today finally brings some good news, as the company has secured an injunction against T-Mobile UK, forcing the local carrier to interconnect with the service by Monday, July 23rd under the Competition Act.
We’ve included a video of James Tagg making the announcement below:
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