There is a much quoted explanation from Emoci of Toronto how to create a SIP address that will ring to your Skype name using the Net2Max.com service. It's quite difficult to implement but has received many kudos.

I like these kinds of solutions very much, but I would prefer it the other way around: that Skype rings my SIP address. So I would never have to switch on Skype again. I have all my SIP accounts nicely consolidated to ring my phone or my cell phone. I could do the same with Google Talk, Yahoo and MSN. Only on Skype I am nearly never reachable because I don't like communications that force me to switch my computer on. That's why Skype is Oldschool to me. VoIP has left the PC world long ago and goes along with me.

Mr Blog, David Beckemeyer, thinks the same:

I couldn't agree more, particularly "So I would never have to switch on Skype again." Why doesn't Skype simply offer a 'forward to my SIP address' option? Of course we know why. They want to keep everyone contained in their world. They say it's because Skype users don't want interoperability - if you are a Skype user, maybe it's time to tell them, not me. I agree with you! :)

That reminds me of the recent discussion started by Dan York: "Skype says "No" to VoIP interoperability - *because customers aren't asking for it!* - Well, I am!".

Me too. As well as Martyn Davies and the commentators to his post at VoIP User.

Labels: Google Talk, MSN messenger, SIP, Skype, VoIP, Yahoo

                                      

In the last weeks I was displeased with the state of VoIP on mobile handsets. Wifi coverage is spotty and callback services like Jajah require two phone calls at the same time, which makes them too expensive for penny pinchers like me. That's why I am a fan of callthrough applications which involve only one call leg. The call goes to a local number where a server converts it into a VoIP call. But unfortunately this needs numerous key strokes in addition to the destination number and makes callthrough a cumbersome activity.

Software like MobileTalk from Packet8 would help, but it is bound to just one VoIP provider and could be done much better. Unfortunately the underlying software from Mobilemax gets distributed only to companies and not to end users. So people have to wait until their VoIP provider of choice implements it.

But salvation is near, at least for iPhone users: RingFree let's you use every VoIP provider or even your own Asterisk / SIP server for outbound calls on Apple's "Invention of the year 2007" (according to Time Magazine). iPhone Atlas has the story:

Here, in a nutshell, is how the app works: A user registers with RingFree, entering his iPhone number and providing some other information. The user is then prompted to call a country-local number to confirm their information by entering a PIN. Once logged into the site, the user selects from a list of pre-defined VoIP providers (including VoicePulse, Gizmo Project, PhoneGnome and others) or defines his own by entering a proxy address, username and password.

After selecting or defining a provider, the user can access the Web app’s keypad, which looks something like the iPhone’s standard dialer, selects the preferred VoIP provider from a menu, and hits “Call.” The call sends a bit of JavaScript over EDGE to retrieve a local number from the VoIP provider, which the user is prompted to dial with the iPhone’s native phone application. When this number is dialed, the VoIP provider is triggered to dial the number entered in the Web app, and the call goes through.

RingFree is basically a website with a virtual dialer. It is linked to VoIP providers of choice and uses standard voice minutes to make VoIP calls. Therefore it doesn’t require any hacking or jailbreaking, nor does it require the presence of a WiFi network. Only a small amount of data is transferred over the EDGE network to signalize the call. The voice quality is reportedly good, and calls go through without too much delay so that a commentator at IntoMobile states:

Thank you for this. This is the most useful iPhone application yet. I set it up in less than 2 minutes and I made a call to Ireland using Gizmo Project. Sweet and simple. I am happy and would be jumping up and down with joy if it let me call Skypers.

That's exactly what I was looking for. RingFree is free in the first month, then it costs $30/year. You can also call Google Talk, Yahoo or MSN contacts from the iPhone. I wonder when someone will launch a similar service for other platforms, such as Symbian. It could be a great new feature for Voxalot, whose mobile callback I often use with my own VoIP providers. It costs €0.01 of data or less to establish the call, but still it demands two simultaneous phone calls.

Labels: Apple, Asterisk, Callthrough, EDGE, Gizmo Project, Google Talk, iPhone, Jajah, Mobile, Mobilemax, Mobiletalk, MSN messenger, Packet8, PhoneGnome, Ringfree, SIP, Skype, VoIP, Voxalot, Yahoo

                                      

Yesterday my virtual buddy service@gtalk2voip.com started to chat me automatically when I had my GMail open. He told me about a great new service that's possible now with GTalk2VoIP: Callback.

All users of Jabber based IM chat, Google Talk, MSN/Live Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger can use GTalk2VoIP service to initiate VoIP calls using CALLBACK technique. This means, our system can make VoIP call to your phone (mobile or landline), then make a call to your destination and merge two calls (legs). Callback is initiated by a single IM message sent to service@gtalk2voip.com.

Just talk to the robot! Use your instant messenger to say "CALLBACK +1-111-2223344 +1-555-6667788" to the service@gtalk2voip.com buddy. This will initiate a call to your phone number +1-111-2223344, then to your destination +1-555-6667788. It even works on your mobile phone if you use Fring or the mobile version of Gizmo Project.

The calls cost the normal GTalk2VoIP rates or the rates of your own SIP provider which you can also use at GTalk2VoIP. Each call leg is billed separately, so if both legs are phone numbers the final cost will "double". But normally it should be no problem to use your Fring to start a free call between your friends landline and the fixed line telephone next to you.

This seems much faster and easier than Jajah to me.

Labels: free phone calls, Fring, Gizmo Project, Google Talk, Gtalk2VoIP, Jajah, MSN messenger, VoIP, Yahoo

                                      

VoIP veteran Erik Lagerway, co-founder of softphone maker XTen (today CounterPath), sent me an invitation to participate in the beta test of his new service Lypp.

Lypp is a new calling service that uses IM and command line commands to create one-to-one calls and group calls. By sending a simple command from AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, Gtalk, or ICQ like "call 6045551212, 7035551212", users can create a quick group call. It will be launching in September. It will be Free.

Lypp uses your existing landline or mobile number, but calls are initiated using Instant Messaging. To make that possible you have to add the robot lypp@lypp.com to your Jabber/GTalk IM buddy list. Currently they support AIM / iChat, Google Talk / Jabber, MSN and Yahoo! The answer to the signup e-mail explains it more:

Once you've added the lypp@lypp.com buddy to your Jabber/Gtalk IM contact list, here's how you use the service:

1. Send commands to the Lypp buddy using the following syntax:

call 6046297990 8774730516

You can enter up to 10 phone numbers (remember we currently only support US and Canadian phone numbers).
2. Your phone will ring, the other participants' phones will ring and you'll all be connected.
3. We've kept it simple. There is no step 3.

For help is using the service just text "help" to lypp@lypp.com.

Enjoy!

The Lypp Team

PS: If you invite friends to use Lypp and if they sign up, we'll add 10 bonus minutes to your account for each friend. Refer a friend by texting "invite user@service.com" to lypp@lypp.com.

Lypp's concept sounded directly familiar too me, because I know it from the Russian company GTalk2VoIP.

Although they are located in the remote Siberian city of Tyumen GTalk2VoIP has a famous name in the VoIP industry, providing for instance the bridge to make calls from Gizmo Project to MSN, Yahoo, Jabber and Google Talk.

You just have to accept a robot called service@gtalk2voip.com or gtalk2voip@yahoo.com as buddy on MSN, Google Talk or Yahoo. Then you can make phone calls with these chat programs by texting messages like "call 1-650-253-0000" to the robot. More information can be found here.

Sounds similar to Lypp, doesn't it?

GTalk2VoIP does this already for 1,5 years, so I wonder what is the purpose of Lypp. A copycat? I already asked this question in the regarding group at Facebook, but I still have to wait for an answer.

It can't be the conference calls, because GTalk2VoIP also states on their website that "any IM user can create one or more conference rooms and invite his/her friends to join the conference".

So let's see what the beta test brings.

Labels: Gizmo Project, Google Talk, Gtalk2VoIP, MSN messenger, VoIP, Yahoo

                                      

Jeff Pulver and Ken Camp are bored from what they've seen in VoIP lately. That's why Jeff startet a "challenge for innovative disruptors with regards to the voice applications industry":

Think about presence and voice and instant messaging, take a look at the APIs of twitter and Facebook and pitch me on the service that you want to create. Those who get my attention might end up with the early-early seed capital needed to turn their dream into a reality.

So what could that be? Jeff doesn’t want to hear about a service that's simply a variation on Call Forwarding and/or Voicemail. It has to be something really different. Something cool. Something that truly helps to redefine communications.

I am really courious to see the winner of this competition. I don't know why Jeff is so excited about Twitter and Facebook. To me these applications are mostly a waste of time. But what I would love to have is a "Hosted Fring with Grandcentral's filter rules and international mobile callforward over GSM".

What does that mean?

I like Fring because it connects me with just one program to my contacts at Skype, MSN messenger and Google Talk. Lately it also works as a VoIP client. But only on my Nokia mobile phone!

Why isn't there a website that does the same like Fring? Why isn't Fring a hosted service? I would love to leave my login data for all these services on their website and connect to it over SIP from my ATA. A kind of Voxalot, but extended with Skype, MSN messenger and Google Talk.

Whenever somebody contacts me, my phone should ring. Outgoing calls to Skype, MSN, Google or phone numbers should also be made with my normal phone. The server would decide automatically how to connect the call, because it has call rules for that - like Voxalot has.

Incoming calls would be filtered like at Grandcentral. Annoying people could only leave a voicemail and good friends could ring my phone day and night.

This service should of course not only work over an ATA but also over the mobile phone network. Internationally! There are more and more international MVNOs slashing roaming charges and giving local fixed line numbers to mobile phones. This means they already have an own SIP infrastructure and GSM gateways in every country. If they can give me a local fixed line number in a country, they can also deliver cheaply the described calls from Skype, MSN, Google and my home VoIP providers over GSM.

Outgoing calls should be done the Nimbuzz way:

Call your IM buddies on their mobile or on their PC. At the cost of a local call, worldwide. No credits needed.

A small application on my mobile phone would always know which cheap number to call in every country to connect to the described network.

I am sure, that the despicted layout is possible. The guys at Fring, Grandcentral, Gtalk2VoIP, Skip2PBX and Roam4Free have already pieces of it in their hands.

More coverage about the challenge:

Andy Abramson, Jon Arnold, Pat Phelan, Aswath Rao, Alec Saunders, Russell Shaw and TIA Communities.

Labels: Fring, Google Talk, Grandcentral, Gtalk2VoIP, MSN messenger, Nimbuzz, Nokia, Roam4Free, Skip2PBX, Skype, VoIP, Voxalot

                                      

Now that Google goes "All In" and really takes up the fight for the 700 MHz wireless spectrum in the US we all wonder what are the plans of the search engine company. I found two pieces of well founded speculations that I like most. Both get to the point that Google is planning the total disruption of mobile and fixed line telephony by offering free calls, sponsored by advertising.

"GoogleTel" is arising out of the search engine's last moves and acquisitions. Thomas F. Anglero, one of my favourite VoIP bloggers but not the most frequent writer, puts it in the form of a equation:

GoogleTel = Ubiquisys (Femtocells)+ Bandwidth (Dark Fiber and 700MHz Spectrum) + Grand Central (One Number ID)
Sunday, July 22, 2007

It seems very obvious at this moment what Google is doing. They are building a US nationwide Telecom operator but without the Telecom legacy.

And Don Reisinger at CNet asks:

Could Google kill the cell phone industry?
July 20, 2007 11:08 AM PDT

Once the company announces the wireless broadband to the nation, it will immediately announce that Google Phone everyone has been talking about. The Google Phone will work specifically with the Google system (kind of like Skype) and will be free of charge. The only fee to the consumer is the cost of buying the phone [...] As soon as the phone is released, people will be tossing their iPhones, Razrs and every other cell phone into the nearest river. Why pay all that money for a phone when you can have the same kind of service for free?

Maybe Reisinger should have omitted the interrogation mark in his title? The two articles are highly convincing and should make traditional telcos shiver. Have fun reading and think twice before you sign your next long term contract!

Labels: Google, Google Talk, Grandcentral, VoIP

                                      

Today one of my favourite mobile phone applications, Fring, got kicked by some VoIP experts. It was a classical blog circle, where someone throws a bone in the ring and the others can't hold back from chewing it through as well.

The starter was David Beckemeyer, alias Mr Blog. He is CEO of TelEvolution, the producer of the PhoneGnome, which connects normal phones to VoIP and to Skype. He got quoted by Andy Abramson, daily blogger and CEO of Comunicano, a Californian public relations firm. Another piece came from iotum's CEO Alec Saunders.

The circle of argumentation reminded me of what Thomas Anglero, yet another big VoIP expert, said in december:

As I read through the VoIP blogs, it is clear that VoIP bloggers and the VoIP community itself, does not allow for just anyone to become a member. VoIP bloggers talk about each other (over-and-over), and the VoIP development community only respects those who have done something so glorious before in code. This mindset will kill our industry.

Although blogs are open for comments and trackbacks, the matter of VoIP still seems so difficult to understand (or is it so boring?) that sometimes near incestual relations between blog posts arise. Today everyone seemed to agree on that Fring sucks. Which I see totally different. That's why I feel the need to comment it in my blog as well.

Andy Abramson said:

I think Fring is cool, but I question its utility, especially in GPRS and even EDGE markets where the audio sounds so muddy that its not what you would want to use for a business call.

And David Beckemeyer:

Like many other cell phone users in the US, I have GPRS data service rather than a true 3G data service with my carrier. My first experiences with Fring over GPRS were not very good.

Alec Saunders followed up by criticizing Fring's monetization strategy, arguing that Fring might have some cool features but the guys don't know how to make money with them.

I think they all have lost the point: Fring is the best application to control nearly all important chat and VoIP applications together in just one program. In Europe the mobile networks are as fast as DSL connections. Fring's voice quality is no big deal anymore.

Also you have to see that Fring is much more than a VoIP client. In fact you don't need an extra VoIP client on Wifi enabled mobile phone. The congfiguration of a Nokia E61 is fairly easy and there are loads of web pages which explain how to do it.

The really cool feature is that Fring is a chat client for MSN messenger, Google Talk and Skype at the same time. It is the only way to bring Skype on a Symbian phone and on my Wifi the Skype calls sound great. Isn't that marvelous? I even tried in on GPRS. The voice is understandable. Only the delay is too long.

I use Fring to chat with my buddies. We send text messages instead of SMS. One SMS costs me 15 Euro Cent. But for the same price I can send thousands of chat text messages, since my no frills mobile operator Simyo charges only 24 Euro Cent for 1 MB. Overall I will have to pay 2 Euros for GPRS this month.

Thanks to Fring.

(Disclosure: I work for none of the companies mentioned in this blog post.)

Labels: Fring, Google Talk, Mobile, MSN messenger, Simyo, Skype, VoIP

                                      

At GigaOM there is an interesting survey going on under the title "Does your house VoIP?". Om Malik asks:

Regardless, time to ask the community what kind of a VoIP users are you? Cable kind, or someone who uses soft clients or do have still doing the Vonage styled ATA-based VoIP calling?

This cuestions finally made me get a general idea about all the services I use. And, god, it's a lot of them!

Actually I am using 20 VoIP accounts, out of couriosity and because of the different services they offer. But maybe I am subscribed to even more, but just forgot it. My goal is to make free calls and use arbitrage possibilities between the different VoIP services. I use the different VoIP providers on my desk phone that's connected to the Fritz!Box fon ATA and on my mobile phone, Nokia E61, that can hold several SIP accounts. Also I use Fring on the E61, because it can hold my accounts on Skype, MSN messenger, Google Talk and also one SIP account.

Here is why I use so many different services:

Voipstunt: For free or super cheap calls worldwide. This services I use most. It's installed on my desk phone and on my mobile phone, Nokia E61. So I can make free calls from Wifi hotspots.

Sipgate: Is use Sipgate as an answering machine. Incoming calls to my ATA are forwarded for free to the Sipgate mailbox if not answered in 30 seconds. For that purpose we have two Sipgate accounts at home.

Tpad: Because of their BreakIn numbers worldwide. My friends from Peru can call me so in Berlin for the cost of a local call without having a computer.

Truphone: To check it out on my mobile phone and because of their new offer that gives me landlines nearly worldwide for free in the next two months.

Several services for testing purposes and out of couriosity: GMX, Voipbuster, FWD, dus.net, Sip2sip.info, Ekiga.net, Openwengo, iptel.org, Rebtel, 4S newcom ...

Voxalot: Every time my Fritz!Box fon ATA gets too full, because it can only hold 10 VoIP accounts, I move the one I don't use to call out anymore to Voxalot. This service works like an ATA in the net: It's logged in to the VoIP services I don't use so much anymore. So I can keep them and receive calls on their SIP addresses or phone numbers. For instance if somebody calls my unused Gizmo account (I have several of them) my Voxalot account in my Fritz!Box fon ATA rings.

Gizmocall: I have set up a special web link to my address at Gizmo Project. So people can call me unlimitedly from a web page.

Ageet: That's probably the world's smallest PBX. It works as a Activex plugin in Internet Explorer and has a link from my website. If people open this page the PBX loads and they can call me from their browser. This was really cool until I discovered Gizmocall one week later.

The large quantity of the services I use is not so much a sign that I might be tech crazy. It's just an indication of how much the VoIP sector is still evolving. The industry consist of thousands of different companies that offer basically the same: Cheap phone calls over the internet. But if you look closer you see that they differ in the added services: cheap break in numbers, calls from a website, use the old PSTN number as VoIP number, administrate your other VoIP accounts,...

So probably I will have soon 30 VoIP providers. For instance I am interested in a Peruvian VoIP number that my friends in Lima can call for price of a local call. Tpad is already doing a good job with their callin number and the extension. But sometimes this does not work and a real Peruvian phone number would be much more elegant. But still the Peruvian VoIP market is underdeveloped and these numbers are too expensive to me.

Labels: Ageet, Betamax, Fring, Gizmo Project, Gizmocall, Google Talk, MSN messenger, Nokia, Sipgate, Skype, Tpad, Truphone, VoIP, Voxalot