Fring aims to cut cellphone costs with VOIP
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(InfoWorld) - Avi Shechter, co-founder and CEO of Fringland (Fring), could be on to something big with the launch of a cheap Internet-based phone service that runs over mobile networks. But the Israeli entrepreneur could also be in for the fight of his life with mobile phone network operators determined to protect their cash-cow voice business from virtual service providers. "I believe Fring brings value for users," Shechter said in an interview on the sidelines of theÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona, adding that the low-cost service will have an impact on the voice business of mobile phone network operators. Fring didn't have a booth at the show but if you ran into Shechter, he was more than happy to demonstrate the service. The former co-general manager of instant messaging company ICQÂ and his team of 30 have launched a peer-to-peer VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service that carries calls over cellphone networks in much the same way PC-based Internet telephony services transport conversations over Wi-Fi or fixed-line broadband connections. You can download the 200KB Fring application to your handset for free. You'll need a Nokia Series 60 3rd Edition phone but Fring hopes to widen the choice of handsets by enabling the application to run on other operating systems as well, including Microsoft's Window Mobile. Fring not only looks and feels a lot like other PC-based applications such as Skype, Google Talk, and MSN Messenger that offer integrated VOIP, instant messaging and real-time presence services; the application also connects with them. It uses Skype's API (application programming interface) but is not endorsed or certified by Skype, according to Fring's Web site. You can fill your contacts list with other Fring users, or friends on the other services, see when they're online and communicate directly with them. When in idle mode, the Fring application drains the battery a little faster than a cell phone normally would in standby mode -- but with the advantage that you are able to see when your friends are available, and signal your availability. The cost of using Fring depends on your data plan -- the application sends around 4.5MB per hour spent talking. While the costs of local or in-country calls are comparable with standard calls, the real savings appear to be made on international calls. You can make calls to users on public telephone networks, using Skype Out, but these carry an additional fee on top of the data charges. Also, if you make a "roaming" call from outside your home network, you will be charged a data roaming fee as you would for any other data service. For all its features, Fring still has some kinks. If you try to make calls over GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) or GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks, you'll notice a crackly voice quality similar to early PC-based VOIP service, according to Shechter. "Our service is designed for 3G networks but we're working on improving the quality in the other networks," he said. Because you have to connect to the Internet to use the service, you'll need a data package of sufficient size, and although most mobile Internet data packages are volume-based, make sure there's no time limit. That would severely restrict your ability to use Fring or any otherÂ mobile VOIPÂ application for that matter. Some operators, such as T-Mobile International, have banned the use of VOIP applications on their networks. Other operators may also introduce measures to block access to virtual mobile VOIP service providers like Fring that use their mobile data networks without commercial agreements. To offset any lost voice revenue from the switch to IP, such operators could charge a specific VOIP subscription fee, or offer a more expensive data package service fee for using VOIP or even bundle additional services for a higher fee. Particularly in Europe, operators have invested far too much money in licenses, equipment and customer acquisition to give anything away. Like fixed-line operators that first fought and then adopted VOIP services, mobile operators must now deal with a disruptive technology that could radically change their business models. Â
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AT&amp;T Corp. and Internet telephone provider Vonage said on Thursday they were cutting prices for their residential Internet calling services by $5 per month, the strongest
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With Americans cutting the cord to their land lines, 2007 is likely to be the first calendar year in which U.S. households spend more on cell phone services.
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Upcoming cell phone will offer integrated VoIP features and tools for wireless Web access.
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Skype to start charging for VoIP calls to regular phones, computer-to-computer calls to remain free.
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InfoWorld - Avi Shechter, co-founder and CEO of Fringland (Fring), could be on to something big with the launch of a cheap Internet-based phone service that runs over mobile networks. But the Israeli entrepreneur could also be in for the fight of his life with mobile phone network operators determined to protect their cash-cow voice business from virtual service providers.
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In a move that could help small and medium-size businesses save money, telecom carrier XO Communications has rolled out a new pricing model for VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services based on the bandwidth a business uses, instead of the number of lines.The pricing model, announced Wednesday along with expansion of XO&#39;s VoIP offerings, allows U.S. business customers to set a price based on an IP port speed ranging from 1.5Mbps to 45Mbps, instead of the number of lines used. There are additional costs for long-distance calling plans and additional features.&quot;With IP, voice is just another application over the IP backbone,&quot; said Nic Jackson, XO&#39;s director of voice and converged services. &quot;When we put a T1 [connection] out to the customer premise, it really doesn&#39;t matter to us, or to the customer really, how they use that T1, as long as they have enough bandwidth to manage their voice and data needs. Why would we price differently for a voice channel vs. a data channel? It just doesn&#39;t make sense in this new IP world.&quot;Pricing starts at about $400 to $550 a month for 1.5Mbps service, depending on location and based on a three-year contract, Jackson said. A basic long-distance calling plan would cost an additional $60 a month. XO also offers one-year and five-year contracts.The new pricing model could cut costs for companies, particularly small and medium-size businesses, said Lisa Pierce, an analyst with Forrester Research. For a T1 line, a business with volume of about 54 calls per hour would be necessary for the XO pricing to make sense, she said.&quot;It looks like a pretty good deal,&quot; Pierce said.However, businesses interested in the plan should inquire whether the service is being provided over XO&#39;s own backbone or whether the carrier is buying access from others, Pierce said. In some cases, the rented network access can cause outages, she said.In addition, businesses should have a good idea about their current and future voice use before signing a contract based on bandwidth, Pierce recommended. &quot;They need to really have a handle on their traffic to do that,&quot; she said. &quot;And a lot of companies don&#39;t.&quot;XO will help customers determine their bandwidth needs, Jackson said. The bandwidth pricing can help simplify customer decisions about what kind of calling services they need, she said.In addition, XO, in Herndon, Virginia, announced it has expanded two of its VoIP offerings.The company has launched its XO IP Flex service, which allows customers to use traditional PBXes or multiline, key telephone systems to connect to XO&#39;s VoIP services. The new service, which replaces XO&#39;s XOptions Flex offering, includes unlimited site-to-site calling, voicemail and dynamic bandwidth allocation, allowing full use of the IP circuit for data when voice lines are idle. IP Flex also offers bandwidth of up to 10M bps, compared to 3M bps under the old service, Jackson said.XO also announced the nationwide availability of its IP SIP VoIP service, which delivers voice and data services to businesses with IP PBX systems over a single connection. XO launched IP SIP in October in six U.S. markets.&quot;What this means is a much broader portfolio than we had, say 18 months ago,&quot; Jackson said.
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A small South Carolina company says it has a cure for the modern plague of budget-busting cell-phone charges racked up by teenagers: a gadget for text-messaging that isn't a cell phone.
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An announcement that AT&amp;T would drop its prices for its VoIP CallVantage Service, its popular residential broadband phone service, from $34.
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T-Mobile is testing a service that combines VoIP and cellular access in hopes of catching up with its competitors.
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New plans offering unlimited talk will change the wireless landscape.
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(InfoWorld) - Nearly one year after Skype stole the headlines at the 3GSM World Congress with itsÂ plans to offer a mobile versionÂ of its Internet phone, a couple of nimble startups -- and not the Net telephony pioneer itself -- appear to have found a way to make this type of service work, both technically and commercially. Earlier this week, JajahÂ announced aÂ new mobile VOIPÂ serviceÂ that allows smart-phone users to make low-cost and, in some cases, free international calls. Customers simply enter Jajah's mobile Web portal through their handset's browser, enter their user name and password and then make a either a free or low-cost call. The launch of Jajah Mobile Web comes on the heals of a mobile VOIP (voice over IP) offering by Fring, which, unlike Jajah, requires users to download software and install it in their Internet-enabled handsets. The Fring service gives mobile users access to P-to-P (peer-to-peer) VOIP offerings such as Skype and Google Talk. Microsoft appears to have its finger on the pulse of mobile VOIP, too. Next week in Barcelona, the U.S. software giant will unwrap aÂ new version of its Windows Mobile OSÂ that will supposedly enable carriers and device maker to add VOIP functionality to Windows Mobile devices. All these announcements -- and the many more expected at this year's 3GSM World Congress -- come as Skype, which essentially stunned the mobile phone industry last year with its VOIP plans, acknowledges technical and commercial hurdles. In a recent interview in Finnish newspaper, Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas ZennstrÃ¶m spoke of "technical obstacles" and conceded that efforts to make Skype work had been taking "much longer than expected." At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, Eric Lagier, Skype director of business development for hardware and mobile, called the lack of attractive flat-rate fees for most mobile phone services a key commercial hurdle to mobile VOIP usage. He said the company didn't want to be in a position of claiming that its service is free, but facing users who at the end of the month are docked with a huge broadband usage fee. At last year's 3GSM World Congress, Skype and the Hutchison 3 Group (Hutchison 3G)Â announced a partnershipÂ to provide what they had hoped to become the world's first commercial VOIP service for mobile phones. Hutchison 3G, which operates IP-based mobile broadband networks in several European markets, was one of the first mobile phone operators to embrace VOIP, a technology many in the industry view as a major threat to their cash-cow voice business. But industry experts admit that challenges remain.Â One hurdle in providing quality VOIP serviceÂ over mobile handsets is the uplink, which is currently too slow to support quality voice calls, John Giere, chief marketing officer at Alcatel-Lucent, said in an earlier interview. To increase uplink speeds, operators of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks, which dominate Europe and many parts of Asia and Latin America, will need to upgrade their networks with HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) technology, which will give operators "the bidirectional capability they need to run real VOIP," he said. The high-speed technology is not expected to become commercially available in volume until the latter part of 2007 or early 2008. Operators are presently busy rolling out the downlink counterpart HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access).
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AT&amp;T has lowered the price of its CallVantage telephone service to $29.99 per month. It includes unlimited local and long distance calling within the US and Canada.
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The firm&#39;s new Internet calling plan is cheaper than traditional phone service and has more features. AT&amp;T has followed its recent announcement that it&#39;s not marketing new residential telephone service by
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Fring, a mobile-phone version of Skype, uses peer-to-peer Internet technology to send calls from mobile phones over the Internet at no charge.
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AT&amp;T (T) and Internet telephone provider Vonage said Thursday they are cutting prices for their residential Internet calling services by $5 a month, the strongest signs yet of a price war in the nascent market.
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Cellular service competitors followed Verizon with unlimited monthly voice plans for $99.