Do you remember last year when Rebtel snapped up the brand name easyMobile from Stelios Haji-Ioannou? CEO Hjalmar Windbladh sounded very enthusiastic then.
"Sir Stelios and easyGroup are our kind of partners", he said. "They want to make a difference in people's lives. They offer services for the many, not the few. They take on the big boys in the market and treasure relentless innovation. And most importantly they're open and honest."
EasyMobile.com was rebuilt and looked the same like Rebtel, only on Orange. Well, but not anymore, I realized today. The two companies' desire to "make a difference" and "take on the big boys" lasted only some months and the cooperation was killed silently. Today the easyMobile website looks like domain placeholder, cluttered with all kinds of referral links.
easyMobile is dead again.
Showing posts with label Rebtel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rebtel. Show all posts
Friday, December 11, 2009
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
O2 Germany unblocks Rebtel
Just a fast news break: O2 in Germany is not blocking the phone numbers of Rebtel anymore. Their blog says "Victory! Rebtel is officially back in town and we’re planning on staying for a loooong time without any unexpected interruptions." I just heard the good news from my contacts and already did some Rebtel calls with a German SIM card from O2. Rebtel's CEO Hjalmar Winbladh is very happy that the pressure from thousands of Rebtel users made this breakthrough possible. He had had asked to write emails to the boss of O2 in Germany, Mr. Jaime Smith Basterra (jaime.smith@o2.com) or call the O2 support desk on 0049 179 55 22 2. Hjalmar told me in an email:
The affected companies are listed in a Google Spreadsheet which forum user Vesko keeps up to date: Budgetmobil, DialNow, Calleasy, voipwise.com, nonoh.net, VoipBusterPro, yipl.de, Chat House, Bluerate, Speed-Chat, partyknack.de, 030chat.de and Phonecaster. As you might notice there are several Betamax services among them. If the company wasn't so reluctant to talk to its users, Betamax could make a similar call for help.
"We are very grateful for the overwhelming support we have received from our users. They proved that together we can make a difference. O2 would not have changed their mind without our users mailing, visiting and calling O2's CEO and customer support. Thank you all Rebtel friend! People can now stay in touch their loved ones again and afford to pay for it. We hope this has shown other operators that people do not accept being told who they can call and if they can use VOIP-services or not. We will continue to support our users and offer some of the world's lowest rates and best quality calling."It cannot be overheard: Rebtel is happy, but they also send a message to incumbent telco operators to never try that again. Actually not only the Swedish company was affected. There are still more callthrough services and chatlines which see their numbers constrained by O2 and E-Plus in Germany. Their numbers are blocked or "limited", which is an especially nasty trick that user handytim explains in the web forum Telefon-Treff.de: "The numbers are not blocked, only limited. In my test I could only establish 1 connection out of 100 trials". While blocking of certain phone numbers is illegal for mobile operators, limiting seems to allowed to save their bandwith. One has to ask what's the difference to a blockade if really one of 100 calls comes through.
The affected companies are listed in a Google Spreadsheet which forum user Vesko keeps up to date: Budgetmobil, DialNow, Calleasy, voipwise.com, nonoh.net, VoipBusterPro, yipl.de, Chat House, Bluerate, Speed-Chat, partyknack.de, 030chat.de and Phonecaster. As you might notice there are several Betamax services among them. If the company wasn't so reluctant to talk to its users, Betamax could make a similar call for help.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
easyMobile comes back, but the calls aren't free as Stelios had announced
The British phone company easyMobile is back, 18 months after it had to shut down. But this time the brand name doesn't stand for a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). The Greek serial entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, also founder of the airline easyJet and other successful low cost product ventures, has changed the business model entirely and doesn't comply with his former announcement about the future of easyMobile.
Exactly one year ago Stelios told me that he wanted to resuscitate the company as MVNO with free phone calls, sponsored by advertising. A similar business was already in the making under the name of Blyk, a UK based start-up by the former president of Nokia Corporation, Pekka Ala-Pietilä. It launched some months later but it seems that Blyk hasn't conviced Stelios, because the new easyMobile is nothing more than a new face for the Swedish VoIP company Rebtel. The press release says:
Hopefully his cooperation lasts longer than the former easyMobile. Stelios is a genius in lending his brand name, but he also tends to end franchising very fast. The first easyMobile was planned as pan European MVNO in 12 countries. The Danish operator TDC licensed the brand from Stelios' easyGroup but things didn't turn out so well. TDC got bought and changed their business strategy which made Stelios retract the brandname. In just 48 hours the German branch had to change its name into callmobile. „You always have to be cautious that the franchisees don't damage your established brand name“, Stelios said in our interview.
Hjalmar be careful!
Exactly one year ago Stelios told me that he wanted to resuscitate the company as MVNO with free phone calls, sponsored by advertising. A similar business was already in the making under the name of Blyk, a UK based start-up by the former president of Nokia Corporation, Pekka Ala-Pietilä. It launched some months later but it seems that Blyk hasn't conviced Stelios, because the new easyMobile is nothing more than a new face for the Swedish VoIP company Rebtel. The press release says:
Rebtel, the people's global communications company, today announced a brand licensing agreement with easyGroup that will allow Rebtel to increase its presence in the UK and reach new markets for its mobile VoIP services.Rebtel's CEO Hjalmar Windbladh sounds very enthusiastic. "Sir Stelios and easyGroup are our kind of partners", he says. "They want to make a difference in people's lives. They offer services for the many, not the few. They take on the big boys in the market and treasure relentless innovation. And most importantly they're open and honest. Those are all values that Rebtel was built on."
easyGroup is the business of easyJet founder and serial entrepreneur Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Under the agreement, Rebtel-powered services for making low cost international phone calls from any mobile phone, over any UK network, will be sold and marketed on easyGroup's http://www.easyMobile.com web site.
Hopefully his cooperation lasts longer than the former easyMobile. Stelios is a genius in lending his brand name, but he also tends to end franchising very fast. The first easyMobile was planned as pan European MVNO in 12 countries. The Danish operator TDC licensed the brand from Stelios' easyGroup but things didn't turn out so well. TDC got bought and changed their business strategy which made Stelios retract the brandname. In just 48 hours the German branch had to change its name into callmobile. „You always have to be cautious that the franchisees don't damage your established brand name“, Stelios said in our interview.
Hjalmar be careful!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Phone company Jajah enters wholesale business
The VoIP company Jajah is entering more and more markets and now they are gearing towards the wholesale business. That's what I learned at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress, where I met a company which had been approached by the Austrians who wanted to sell them phone minutes in a big scale. "Roman is flying high", said my contact about Jajah co-founder Roman Scharf. "He is moving on Tier 1 carrier level and wants to have his part of the phone card business." A similar impression I got from my interview in Barcelona.
Roman tells that so many new users are signing up to the the company's latest callthrough service, Jajah Direct, that there has to be a shift in business. After beta testing the service in Germany, UK, USA and Austria there will be a big rollout in 30 to 50 countries. In some weeks we should see it in every European country. Jajah Direct assigns local numbers from your country to contacts abroad for cheap phone calls over the internet. People can save a lot on international phone calls. That's why the Swedish company Rebtel had invented the same business model yet two years before, as they point out in their blog. "With Jajah Direct we found a way to make VoIP as easy as a normal phone call: dial a number, press the call button and start to talk", says Roman Scharf. Even his grandmother in Austria has a number in Salzburg that she can call to make his office phone in the US ring.
The technical part is tricky because Jajah relies on shared phone numbers. "We can serve millions of customers with just 99 numbers per country", says Roman. Therefor Jajah has to know the caller's number. Users have to tell their home, office and mobile numbers before they can assign up to 99 consecutive Jajah numbers to their contacts from abroad. Jajah knows that when caller A dials number B he has to be redirected to number C abroad. Another caller, D, who calls the same number B, will be connected to number E. Only anonymous callers, who don't transmit their phone numbers, can't take part in this game.
Roman sees Jajah Direct as great chance to grow dynamically in the important telecommunications markets. About the companies former flagship service, which relies on callback, he now says that it's only useful for people sitting in front of their computers. With just one click on the Jajah button in Outlook or the browser you can start a call. "Other technologies we have also tried, like Java or Symbian software or SMS bridges, were too different from normal telephony", says Roman. Too few people installed an extra software on their cell phones for international calls.
Also the telephony backend has its quirks, Jajah had to learn. When the company was young they didn't have own networks and had to send all traffic to wholesalers, always chosing the most competitive offer. Until Jajah learned that this was an Achilles' heel. They just couldn't guarantee for voice quality, but customers expected their calls to sound like normal phone connections. Also the price margins were razor thin for Jajah. "That's why we started to build up our own infrastructure at the beginning of 2007", says Roman. "You will hear a lot about it in the next weeks and months."
According to his plans, other Internet companies, competing VoIP services, cable TV providers and incumbent phone companies will realize that this infrastructure doesn't have to be only useful to Jajah, but also to them. Roman says that Jajah is already terminating international calls for a Canadian telco company. With two big US cable companies they have similar contracts. "We are negotiating with seven or eight big European players", he says. "We have the most interesting infrastructure of the industry", touts the Austrian high flyer. Then he explains how Jajah can power even the most outdated fixed line phone systems, every kind of mobile phone network (GSM, CDMA, UMTS) and the latest freaky services like Emobile's data only cell phones. They don't even have a voice channel, but the Japanese users can make cheap VoIP calls over SIP with a preinstalled Jajah client.
Roman tells that so many new users are signing up to the the company's latest callthrough service, Jajah Direct, that there has to be a shift in business. After beta testing the service in Germany, UK, USA and Austria there will be a big rollout in 30 to 50 countries. In some weeks we should see it in every European country. Jajah Direct assigns local numbers from your country to contacts abroad for cheap phone calls over the internet. People can save a lot on international phone calls. That's why the Swedish company Rebtel had invented the same business model yet two years before, as they point out in their blog. "With Jajah Direct we found a way to make VoIP as easy as a normal phone call: dial a number, press the call button and start to talk", says Roman Scharf. Even his grandmother in Austria has a number in Salzburg that she can call to make his office phone in the US ring.
The technical part is tricky because Jajah relies on shared phone numbers. "We can serve millions of customers with just 99 numbers per country", says Roman. Therefor Jajah has to know the caller's number. Users have to tell their home, office and mobile numbers before they can assign up to 99 consecutive Jajah numbers to their contacts from abroad. Jajah knows that when caller A dials number B he has to be redirected to number C abroad. Another caller, D, who calls the same number B, will be connected to number E. Only anonymous callers, who don't transmit their phone numbers, can't take part in this game.
Roman sees Jajah Direct as great chance to grow dynamically in the important telecommunications markets. About the companies former flagship service, which relies on callback, he now says that it's only useful for people sitting in front of their computers. With just one click on the Jajah button in Outlook or the browser you can start a call. "Other technologies we have also tried, like Java or Symbian software or SMS bridges, were too different from normal telephony", says Roman. Too few people installed an extra software on their cell phones for international calls.
Also the telephony backend has its quirks, Jajah had to learn. When the company was young they didn't have own networks and had to send all traffic to wholesalers, always chosing the most competitive offer. Until Jajah learned that this was an Achilles' heel. They just couldn't guarantee for voice quality, but customers expected their calls to sound like normal phone connections. Also the price margins were razor thin for Jajah. "That's why we started to build up our own infrastructure at the beginning of 2007", says Roman. "You will hear a lot about it in the next weeks and months."
According to his plans, other Internet companies, competing VoIP services, cable TV providers and incumbent phone companies will realize that this infrastructure doesn't have to be only useful to Jajah, but also to them. Roman says that Jajah is already terminating international calls for a Canadian telco company. With two big US cable companies they have similar contracts. "We are negotiating with seven or eight big European players", he says. "We have the most interesting infrastructure of the industry", touts the Austrian high flyer. Then he explains how Jajah can power even the most outdated fixed line phone systems, every kind of mobile phone network (GSM, CDMA, UMTS) and the latest freaky services like Emobile's data only cell phones. They don't even have a voice channel, but the Japanese users can make cheap VoIP calls over SIP with a preinstalled Jajah client.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Before you call Betamax a scam, read the Terms of Service!
In the last weeks I received many messages from people who want to start a lawsuit against the VoIP company Betamax from Cologne, Germany. They feel betrayed by the mothership of Voipstunt, Voipcheap, Sparvoip, Lowratevoip, Nonoh and other offers. Something must have gone wrong with their billing or they believe that Betamax wrongfully charged too much. Aside from the problem that Betamax themselves are apparently victim of a scam, I can only say that for me everything works flawlessly. But I get the impression that many users don't understand the company's Terms of Service. This morning a Betamax user called Robert wrote:
I told him to first look at the website http://backsla.sh/betamax. There you can always see the latest prices and you will realize that with most Betamax companies you can call Russia's landline phones for free, within a Fair Use Policy (FUP) of 300 minutes per week. This FUP seems very fair to me. I never exceed it, so Betamax' normally works like a flatrate for me.
In fact I am very surprised about their cheap prices for Russia, because I know that connections outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow are very expensive to buy in wholesale markets. Therefore e. g. Rebtel users have to pay $0.019 Cents to Moscow and St. Petersburg landlines - but $0.079 Cents to other Russian cities. So Betamax' $0.00 Cent is a great bargain. For the German company it makes a big price difference whether they terminate calls in the U.S.A., Italy or in Russia. Although it might be difficult to explain to the average user like Robert.
There can be two reasons for that:
So, if Betamax charges for actual free calls, there might be a technical problem. Otherwise it seems a great bargain to me to get 1.200 minutes per month from Betamax for just €2.50. (Taking into account that that you have to pay €10 every four months to get the €0.00 to Russian landlines.) People should also consider what user satphoneguy wrote in Voxalot's forum:
Many people in Europe accept a lousy service, as long as it's cheap. But others expect a great service although they pay nearly nothing. That's just not possible to deliver for a company. Good service always has its price, especially in a country with sky-high wages like Germany. People who want more than just plain phone minutes should subscribe to companies like PhoneGnome, Packet8 or Sipgate which have real hotlines by phone and email for their clients. That's what I also told Robert, who finally admitted:
Please always have a look at the small print at the end of every Betamax web page!
They say it very clear that free calls are limited to 300 minutes per week and IP address. That's not too difficult to understand, isn't it? What still remains a mistery to me, is the sentence „When you have no FREE DAYS left the normal rates apply“.
What are these normal rates after 300 minutes? I couldn't find them either.
The company I work for happens to be in Moscow so I call them regularly. Why do they suddenly want to charge me for these calls? It doesn't make any difference whether I call the U.S.A., Italy or Russia. They are all free and perhaps I call Moscow three times a day but perhaps twice a week.
I told him to first look at the website http://backsla.sh/betamax. There you can always see the latest prices and you will realize that with most Betamax companies you can call Russia's landline phones for free, within a Fair Use Policy (FUP) of 300 minutes per week. This FUP seems very fair to me. I never exceed it, so Betamax' normally works like a flatrate for me.
In fact I am very surprised about their cheap prices for Russia, because I know that connections outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow are very expensive to buy in wholesale markets. Therefore e. g. Rebtel users have to pay $0.019 Cents to Moscow and St. Petersburg landlines - but $0.079 Cents to other Russian cities. So Betamax' $0.00 Cent is a great bargain. For the German company it makes a big price difference whether they terminate calls in the U.S.A., Italy or in Russia. Although it might be difficult to explain to the average user like Robert.
Now I see that calls, which were originally free, are now being charged under the 'fair use policy'. This I don't understand.
There can be two reasons for that:
1.) Robert calls for more then 300 minutes per week.
2.) He shares his IP number with other users, so that Betamax thinks that it's only one user. That's what happened at Voxalot, a virtual internet PBX: All Voxalot users had the same IP number to Betamax. Therefore they jointly exceeded the FUP very fast. Voxalot managed to strike an agreement with Betamax to pass the original IP number, so that every user now has his own FUP.
So, if Betamax charges for actual free calls, there might be a technical problem. Otherwise it seems a great bargain to me to get 1.200 minutes per month from Betamax for just €2.50. (Taking into account that that you have to pay €10 every four months to get the €0.00 to Russian landlines.) People should also consider what user satphoneguy wrote in Voxalot's forum:
having lived in many parts of the world I think that a lot of what is happening is relate to cultural differences and expectation of customer service. from what i have read the vast majority of complaints are coming from the USA. here in the USA it is somewhat expected that if you are unhappy with a service or feel deceived by misleading marketing that you should be eligible for refund on what you spent. most American companies do indeed give 100% refunds to their customers no questions asked when they complain. i do know from having lived overseas that is not the business etiquette everyplace. there are a number of reasons why many people may feel deceived since the betamax 'fair use policies' are not very clear. in particular concerning additional charges for use of SIP devices on some services. it is all exasperated in that americans also feel that every company should have a customer service line where they can call with questions(or complaints) or at very least email support with a quick turnaround to response(same day)
i do have to say though that it seems many people who complain about numerous betamax companies continue to try the others. this is very similar to what i dealt with working for a very large retail company - some of the biggest complainers and returners of products for refunds were also some of the biggest shoppers; i would see them on nearly a daily basis.
i personally have never had a billing issue with betamax. although in recent months my only funded account is nonoh; since the rates are so much less for the mobile destinations that i call than with any of the SIP options and i have unlimited calls to NA and most landlines through another provider.
Many people in Europe accept a lousy service, as long as it's cheap. But others expect a great service although they pay nearly nothing. That's just not possible to deliver for a company. Good service always has its price, especially in a country with sky-high wages like Germany. People who want more than just plain phone minutes should subscribe to companies like PhoneGnome, Packet8 or Sipgate which have real hotlines by phone and email for their clients. That's what I also told Robert, who finally admitted:
I suppose, like most people, I never fully read the 'Terms of Use', although in these terms there is no exact reason mentioned and more than that, there is no exact time limit per country or city mentioned where this might be relatively easy as an adder to the price information.
Please always have a look at the small print at the end of every Betamax web page!
* Max 300 minutes per week of free calls, measured over the last 7 days and per unique IP address. Unused free minutes cannot be taken to the following week(s). If limit is exceeded the normal rates apply. With your FREE DAYS you can call for free to all the destinations listed as free! When you have no FREE DAYS left the normal rates apply. You can get extra Freedays by buying credit
They say it very clear that free calls are limited to 300 minutes per week and IP address. That's not too difficult to understand, isn't it? What still remains a mistery to me, is the sentence „When you have no FREE DAYS left the normal rates apply“.
What are these normal rates after 300 minutes? I couldn't find them either.
Friday, February 1, 2008
To make money from mobile VoIP, companies have to accept certain realities
Jon Arnold has updated his very interesting portal website IP Convergence TV. This time I also wrote a guest opinion, because to make money from mobile VoIP companies have to accept certain realities: "WiFi isn't everywhere and callback costs double".
I love the mobile use of VoIP but I still find it quite uncomfortable. That's what I point out. Especially annoying is how Skype, Fring, Truphone and other SIP based VoIP services get blocked by German 3G providers. Sorry, Dean Bubley from Disruptive Analysys! The reality looks much darker for VoIPo3G than you predict for the future. (But thanks for your regular Google ads "3G mobile Voice over IP. Analyst report: is it a threat to carriers? Or a future opportunity?". I better put a direct link to your website.)
Mobile VoIP over Wifi works only at home or in the office where I don't need it. So in my guest opinion I advocate intelligent cell phone software which automatically completes calls as callback, callthrough, Vo3G or VoWifi while the user doesn't even notice. I have already installed an example software on a Nokia E61.
Maybe if more and more people use these options, Dean's dream will come true. If everyone uses only mobile callthrough, triggered by intelligent software on the handset, the mobile network operators cannot charge any other items than the tariff's included minutes for local calls. Their voice legacy cell phone networks would become dumb pipes into the internet, the way we already see it with the 3Skypephone or iSkoot, Ringfree, Mobivox, Jajah Direct, Sipbroker, Tpad, Rebtel, Mobiletalk, etc. If mobile operators wanted to charge for international calls at all, they would have to embrace VoIPo3G and could at least charge for data, the way Dean predicts it.
But until this comes true, the mobile VoIP companies should attack the incumbents with better callthrough options, to take more and more cell phone calls out of the traditional networks and into IP. Read the full text for further explanations!
I love the mobile use of VoIP but I still find it quite uncomfortable. That's what I point out. Especially annoying is how Skype, Fring, Truphone and other SIP based VoIP services get blocked by German 3G providers. Sorry, Dean Bubley from Disruptive Analysys! The reality looks much darker for VoIPo3G than you predict for the future. (But thanks for your regular Google ads "3G mobile Voice over IP. Analyst report: is it a threat to carriers? Or a future opportunity?". I better put a direct link to your website.)
Mobile VoIP over Wifi works only at home or in the office where I don't need it. So in my guest opinion I advocate intelligent cell phone software which automatically completes calls as callback, callthrough, Vo3G or VoWifi while the user doesn't even notice. I have already installed an example software on a Nokia E61.
Maybe if more and more people use these options, Dean's dream will come true. If everyone uses only mobile callthrough, triggered by intelligent software on the handset, the mobile network operators cannot charge any other items than the tariff's included minutes for local calls. Their voice legacy cell phone networks would become dumb pipes into the internet, the way we already see it with the 3Skypephone or iSkoot, Ringfree, Mobivox, Jajah Direct, Sipbroker, Tpad, Rebtel, Mobiletalk, etc. If mobile operators wanted to charge for international calls at all, they would have to embrace VoIPo3G and could at least charge for data, the way Dean predicts it.
But until this comes true, the mobile VoIP companies should attack the incumbents with better callthrough options, to take more and more cell phone calls out of the traditional networks and into IP. Read the full text for further explanations!
Friday, January 18, 2008
Tringme does the Ribbit
There are Copycats wherever you look. Smith on VoIP today criticizes that "Rebtel Borrows Iotum’s Idea; Now Offers Facebook Conferencing App", while Rebtel themselves feel copied by Jajah Direct:
Now Tringme announces the "Tringswitch" which sounds quite similar to me. Both products promise to fulfil every VoIP necessity. But nobody has seen them yet in public. Bingo!
TringSwitch Launch and Demo at HeadStart.in
Dear TringMe User,
First of all, we wish you all a very happy 2008!!
Life at TringMe continues to march at a fast pace and we wanted to share some recent developments with you.
Very soon, we will officially launch TringMe's platform server - TringSwitch. TringSwitch is a highly reliable and real-time platform optimized for web-based telephony applications. It's the core back-end of TringMe widgets and is now available for others to build interesting and innovative applications on it. TringSwitch can be integrated with any telephony back-end including SIP server, PSTN gateways, SMS gateways etc. TringSwitch can be used within an enterprise infrastructure setup or can be used for consumer facing web-based applications.
TringMe's Mobile VoIP client can be easily configured without downloading anything. We can remotely configure your mobile to use TringMe by merely sending you a special SMS. This is a novel way for a user to start using the mobile device without having to spend any time configuring the device settings for using TringMe. Alternately, you can also download TringMe’s Symbian client (which will be available soon) from our website to enable Mobile VoIP on your Mobile and leverage additional functionality (e.g. sending an SMS over IP) from it.
With Mobile VoIP support, using your mobile, you can connect to your friends not just on landlines and cellular device, but also on IMs like Gtalk. Essentially, all termination points that are accessible by TringMe widgets from a PC are available via Mobile VoIP as well. This has been one of the key requests from many users of TringMe and hence we are extremely delighted to provide the same.
We also added speech recognition (ASR) capability in TringSwitch thereby making it convenient for TringMe users to initiate voice-based actions. New innovative applications like voice-enabled yellow page, voice enabled vertical searches, interactive games etc can be developed quickly with TringSwitch with almost no effort or coding.
We are very happy to announce that TringMe was selected as one of the companies which should demonstrate it's capabilities at HeadStart (http://www.headstart.in) which is going to be held from Jan 18th to Jan 20th in IISc, Bangalore, India. If you are attending HeadStart, please stop by for our demo. We will demonstrate TringSwitch including TringMe's Mobile VoIP capabilities. We will also show how to develop a rapid prototype application using TringSwitch and Speech Recognition in merely a few minutes without any coding efforts.
We look forward to seeing you at Headstart and thanks again for your continued support and suggestions. Write to us: bizdev@tringme.com
Feel free to let us know if you need any assistance.
Regards,
TringMe Support
http://www.tringme.com/
We want to tip our hat to our friends at Jajah for the introduction of Jajah Direct. Those folks have done a brilliant job at making something that Rebtel has been doing from the start sound brand new and innovative.When I received today the following announcement from Tringme, I couldn't but wonder: Don't I know this story from somewhere else? Then I realized that it was Buzzword Bingo time again. While Tringme recently got great publicity for their Flash based click to call widgets, some days later Ribbit took it all away by also presenting Flash apps and additionally alleging to be Silicon Valley's first Phone Company.
What I’m talking about is free or low-cost international calls without the need for Internet access. Or said another way: Rebtel service as it’s been from day No.1.
And while we’ve always thought our service was innovative, it’s super nice when you get validation from a competitor that you really did break new ground and that all the other ways of making a VoIP calls are “old school.”
At the core of Ribbit's technology is the Ribbit SmartSwitch™, a sophisticated multi-protocol soft-switch that bridges the worlds of traditional telephony with next generation networks and protocols.
Ribbit is an open platform for telephony innovation. Unlike any other phone company, we are giving our developers unprecedented access to our technology, through the Ribbit API and allowing them to innovate at will. Our business is built more like a software company than a phone company.
Now Tringme announces the "Tringswitch" which sounds quite similar to me. Both products promise to fulfil every VoIP necessity. But nobody has seen them yet in public. Bingo!
TringSwitch Launch and Demo at HeadStart.in
Dear TringMe User,
First of all, we wish you all a very happy 2008!!
Life at TringMe continues to march at a fast pace and we wanted to share some recent developments with you.
Very soon, we will officially launch TringMe's platform server - TringSwitch. TringSwitch is a highly reliable and real-time platform optimized for web-based telephony applications. It's the core back-end of TringMe widgets and is now available for others to build interesting and innovative applications on it. TringSwitch can be integrated with any telephony back-end including SIP server, PSTN gateways, SMS gateways etc. TringSwitch can be used within an enterprise infrastructure setup or can be used for consumer facing web-based applications.
TringMe's Mobile VoIP client can be easily configured without downloading anything. We can remotely configure your mobile to use TringMe by merely sending you a special SMS. This is a novel way for a user to start using the mobile device without having to spend any time configuring the device settings for using TringMe. Alternately, you can also download TringMe’s Symbian client (which will be available soon) from our website to enable Mobile VoIP on your Mobile and leverage additional functionality (e.g. sending an SMS over IP) from it.
With Mobile VoIP support, using your mobile, you can connect to your friends not just on landlines and cellular device, but also on IMs like Gtalk. Essentially, all termination points that are accessible by TringMe widgets from a PC are available via Mobile VoIP as well. This has been one of the key requests from many users of TringMe and hence we are extremely delighted to provide the same.
We also added speech recognition (ASR) capability in TringSwitch thereby making it convenient for TringMe users to initiate voice-based actions. New innovative applications like voice-enabled yellow page, voice enabled vertical searches, interactive games etc can be developed quickly with TringSwitch with almost no effort or coding.
We are very happy to announce that TringMe was selected as one of the companies which should demonstrate it's capabilities at HeadStart (http://www.headstart.in) which is going to be held from Jan 18th to Jan 20th in IISc, Bangalore, India. If you are attending HeadStart, please stop by for our demo. We will demonstrate TringSwitch including TringMe's Mobile VoIP capabilities. We will also show how to develop a rapid prototype application using TringSwitch and Speech Recognition in merely a few minutes without any coding efforts.
We look forward to seeing you at Headstart and thanks again for your continued support and suggestions. Write to us: bizdev@tringme.com
Feel free to let us know if you need any assistance.
Regards,
TringMe Support
http://www.tringme.com/
Monday, November 19, 2007
Voxalot's Facebook application for really free phone calls
You know that I bashed Facebook very hard for being a terrible time sucker. Many Web 2.0 applications need too much attention, compared to their value. But there are some utilizations that make me smile, because the unleash the potential of Web 2.0 without wasting my precious time and money. Like Voxalot's latest Facebook application, VoxCall for Facebook, that really disrupts telecommunications. It let's me make free phone calls without touching the PSTN. Read the announcement:
The beauty is that VoxCall uses VoIP without touching the PSTN. My buddies just enter their SIP URI and I can call them with just one click in Facebook. When they change their SIP address I don't have to bother to update my data since their Facebook button stays the same. We stay connected for free from SIP to SIP.
I find this much more nifty than the Facebook apps from Jajah, Jangl, Jaxtr, Rebtel, IVR Technologies, iotum, Sitófono or Grandcentral. They also connect people on Facebook and let them call me for free, in most cases. But there is always a telephone number involved, so that someone has to pay an incumbent telco which provides them.
On Monday 19th Nov 2007 Voxalot will be officially launching our new social communications application for Facebook called VoxCall.
VoxCall is an exciting new initiative from Voxalot that allows Facebook users to click on their friends and initiate phone calls. The beauty of VoxCall is that it is self-organising in that if your VoxCall friend changes their contact phone number, you don't even have to be notified... VoxCall will use whatever number they have registered.
VoxCall also offers both public and private chat rooms where VoxCall friends can get together for a group discussion.
The underlying technology that VoxCall uses to connect calls is Voice over IP addresses (often known as SIP URIs). When you add the VoxCall application, you will be prompted to enter your SIP URI. To ensure that you are the rightful owner of that number, VoxCall will display a PIN number on the screen and then call the number you entered. Your phone will ring and you will be prompted to enter the PIN, which is validated.
As such, VoxCall supports calls between friends that belong to *any* "open" voice network (not just Voxalot).
The beauty is that VoxCall uses VoIP without touching the PSTN. My buddies just enter their SIP URI and I can call them with just one click in Facebook. When they change their SIP address I don't have to bother to update my data since their Facebook button stays the same. We stay connected for free from SIP to SIP.
I find this much more nifty than the Facebook apps from Jajah, Jangl, Jaxtr, Rebtel, IVR Technologies, iotum, Sitófono or Grandcentral. They also connect people on Facebook and let them call me for free, in most cases. But there is always a telephone number involved, so that someone has to pay an incumbent telco which provides them.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Jajah's 2007 IPO cancelled
VoIP callback service provider Jajah has cancelled their IPO for 2007, an idea they first communicated to my fellow Berlin journalist Thomas Ramge in his interview for the German economy feature magazine Brand Eins. When they met in December 2006, Jajah's co-founder Roman Scharf told Ramge that the company would go public at the end of 2007. The year is nearly over and Scharf now had to correct the story a tiny bit in an interview he had on wednesday with Reuters on wednesday, November 7 2007, postponing the IPO for nearly a year.
These numbers are very humble, compared to the evaluation of 2.9 billion dollars which RRS Capital Strategies Services from Vienna credited them as "fair value" in May 2007 after the investments by Deutsche Telekom and Intel. They deducted this virtual price from Jajah's user data and the conditions under which Skype had been sold to Ebay in 2005. As we know Skype's value has fallen by $1.43 billion and this is also affects the valuation of other internet phone companies.
Until now only stock holders of Jajah's investor Qino Flagship could have fun with the company. Qino Flagship is publicly listed and the only stock trading possibility to participate in Jajah's success. Since June Qino's value has fallen from €15 to €10.
But still the carpetbaggers are sucking up every Jajah news, no matter how goofy it is. In the web forum of the Austrian magazine Börse Express they try to construe even the slightest Jajah move. Obviously they are happy about the new business model: in-call advertising as an opt-in solution. Users listen to an audio ad before every phone call and receive Jajah minutes in exchange. 50 per cent of the advertising revenue gets the user and the rest shares Jajah with the phone company, explained the other Jajah founder, Daniel Mattes, in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"JAJAH's patent pending in-call advertising platform turns the inventory of the world's telephone calls into an advertising market place", said Mattes in the German press release. "Google paved the way around a decade ago with Google AdWords. Their approach was revolutionary, as they respected the users' common sense and reactions. We are now trying to do the same for the massive amount of phone call inventory. Think AdWords for the phone", he says in English.
Comparing oneself to Google is always a great way to get publicity. Does anybody remember when it was cool to sell a company as "future Microsoft"? Although Jajah has filed a patent application they are not the first with such an idea. The Rebtel clone Talkster also plays 10 second ads before every call. And Californian Pudding Media even wants to eavesdrop conversations to deliver targeted advertising during their free phone calls.
NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Internet-based phone company Jajah Inc aims to go public in the second or third quarter next year to expand its low-cost calling service globally, co-founder Roman Scharf said in an interview on Wednesday.Too bad that the Reuters reporter Ritsuko Ando is no frequent reader of Brand Eins or GigaOM and missed a much more juicy story, which Om Malik puts in the right words for us:
Jajah’s Hypothetical IPO Delayed Another YearScharf says that they would need $100 million to $200 million to bring Jajah within a year to a level of 50 to 80 million customers. That would be the purpose of a possible IPO. "We want to do this next year. We believe the second or third quarter next year might have the right environment for us to go public."
Jajah, the VoIP callback service provider that shifted from paid to “free” and was dreaming of an initial public offering in 2007, has pushed back its IPO plans until the second or third quarter of 2008, co-founder Roman Scharf told Reuters. The timing seems about right — the way everyone is going nuts here in the Valley, profitless IPOs could make a solid return by the middle of next year.
These numbers are very humble, compared to the evaluation of 2.9 billion dollars which RRS Capital Strategies Services from Vienna credited them as "fair value" in May 2007 after the investments by Deutsche Telekom and Intel. They deducted this virtual price from Jajah's user data and the conditions under which Skype had been sold to Ebay in 2005. As we know Skype's value has fallen by $1.43 billion and this is also affects the valuation of other internet phone companies.
Until now only stock holders of Jajah's investor Qino Flagship could have fun with the company. Qino Flagship is publicly listed and the only stock trading possibility to participate in Jajah's success. Since June Qino's value has fallen from €15 to €10.
But still the carpetbaggers are sucking up every Jajah news, no matter how goofy it is. In the web forum of the Austrian magazine Börse Express they try to construe even the slightest Jajah move. Obviously they are happy about the new business model: in-call advertising as an opt-in solution. Users listen to an audio ad before every phone call and receive Jajah minutes in exchange. 50 per cent of the advertising revenue gets the user and the rest shares Jajah with the phone company, explained the other Jajah founder, Daniel Mattes, in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"JAJAH's patent pending in-call advertising platform turns the inventory of the world's telephone calls into an advertising market place", said Mattes in the German press release. "Google paved the way around a decade ago with Google AdWords. Their approach was revolutionary, as they respected the users' common sense and reactions. We are now trying to do the same for the massive amount of phone call inventory. Think AdWords for the phone", he says in English.
Comparing oneself to Google is always a great way to get publicity. Does anybody remember when it was cool to sell a company as "future Microsoft"? Although Jajah has filed a patent application they are not the first with such an idea. The Rebtel clone Talkster also plays 10 second ads before every call. And Californian Pudding Media even wants to eavesdrop conversations to deliver targeted advertising during their free phone calls.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Why are people like Jeff Pulver so crazy for Facebook and Twitter?
That was a funny to read yesterday: VoIP guru Jeff Pulver published the manifesto "Social Communications. A way of Life for me.", stating that "advent of Social Media provides us all with a great set of online tools we can use to build friendships and conduct business". He tells how he feels connected with hundreds of friends and collaborators without the need to ever meet the person face-to-face and declares 2007 as his year when social media extended itself into his life and changed everything.
The text ends with an invitation to join him on Facebook and Twitter, where we can read important information like "Good morning! Looks like a great day. I just hope the weather stays like this for my drive/ferry/drive to Boston on Thursday." or "Jeff is sleeping and dreaming about Jerusalem ROCKS!".
I nearly cracked up laughing when directly afterwards I read the post "Facebook Crap" on the Wireless Utopia blog. The writer Rajiv, a programmer from Bangalore, came straight to the point:
You are so right Rajiv! I feel the same. Facebook is a great time sucker.
On purpose I made there only "friends" who should be serious people: CEOs, CTOs, analysts, investors, sales people, journalists. I hoped to get in interesting discussions and to learn something. But what do I see? Messages like "Andy Abramson is going to dinner, about to drink wine..." or adult people pretending to be Zombies and virtually bite each other.
The groups, where we could have discussions, are barely updated with new posted items or wall posts. Even the page of the Rebtel group, with 153 members, didn't change in the last 12 days. Other groups that sounded interesting (EQO Mobile, Jajah, Ooma, FWD, ...) didn't develop further than some introductory statements.
Twitter is worse because it's only silly personal status messages. Have fun to read Jeff Pulver saying mostly "Good morning" and talking about the wheather on his Twitter page.
Who needs this? I wonder what Jeff Pulver would say.
UPDATE:
Reuters: Facebook surfers cost their bosses billions
Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:29AM EDT
Sometime during 2007, with the advent of my discovery/obsession with twitter and my recent adoption of Facebook as my iHome, the result of my actions have accelerated the way I have been able to create new relationships with people. These are people whom I've never met, yet over time people whom I feel truly connected with. And I would include in this list some of the people whose blogs I read as well as some of the people who have taken the time to leave a comment on my blog and whom I got to know afterwards.
The text ends with an invitation to join him on Facebook and Twitter, where we can read important information like "Good morning! Looks like a great day. I just hope the weather stays like this for my drive/ferry/drive to Boston on Thursday." or "Jeff is sleeping and dreaming about Jerusalem ROCKS!".
I nearly cracked up laughing when directly afterwards I read the post "Facebook Crap" on the Wireless Utopia blog. The writer Rajiv, a programmer from Bangalore, came straight to the point:
I finally have to admit it: I have not been able to figure out Facebook. No, not their business model. But what to do with it. I am on it and so are a decent amount of friends. But I hardly ever go beyond the home page. I see all my friends adding all sorts of applications, running quizzes, giving each other gifts, reading fortune cookies and whatnot. They seem to be having a good time.
But somehow I fail to enjoy it. None of the apps are really interesting. Or useful. To be frank, some of them are downright childish. Fortune cookies, comparing likes and dislikes. Who has the time for these things.
You are so right Rajiv! I feel the same. Facebook is a great time sucker.
On purpose I made there only "friends" who should be serious people: CEOs, CTOs, analysts, investors, sales people, journalists. I hoped to get in interesting discussions and to learn something. But what do I see? Messages like "Andy Abramson is going to dinner, about to drink wine..." or adult people pretending to be Zombies and virtually bite each other.
The groups, where we could have discussions, are barely updated with new posted items or wall posts. Even the page of the Rebtel group, with 153 members, didn't change in the last 12 days. Other groups that sounded interesting (EQO Mobile, Jajah, Ooma, FWD, ...) didn't develop further than some introductory statements.
Twitter is worse because it's only silly personal status messages. Have fun to read Jeff Pulver saying mostly "Good morning" and talking about the wheather on his Twitter page.
Who needs this? I wonder what Jeff Pulver would say.
UPDATE:
Reuters: Facebook surfers cost their bosses billions
Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:29AM EDT
Monday, July 2, 2007
The iPhone is a crippled device,
... says the Rebtel blog and criticizes the decision to disable VOIP on the iPhone.
I am already waiting for that inevitable development. And as I said already in April: The standardization of VoIP in SIP has opened a Pandora's box for all telecommunication companies. With SIP you can tie every phone system together. More and more bridges are being built to make free phone calls and circumvent paid networks. Voice will become "just another application" like email, as techies use to say.
iPhone buyers get a beautiful machine that’s horribly crippled by the stranglehold AT&T now seems to have on Apple.
It’s also a good demonstration of how the telephony market works: handset manufacturers and operators are in the same bed, and that means that we, their customers, are being deprived of functionality that could be ours if only….
Once VOIP handsets become available, users of mobile services will be able to band together and circumvent mobile protocols altogether. It’s only a matter of time before the first VOIP enabler hacks appear for the iPhone.
I am already waiting for that inevitable development. And as I said already in April: The standardization of VoIP in SIP has opened a Pandora's box for all telecommunication companies. With SIP you can tie every phone system together. More and more bridges are being built to make free phone calls and circumvent paid networks. Voice will become "just another application" like email, as techies use to say.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Comprehensive VoIP overview in San Francisco Chronicle
The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice comprehensive overview about some of the most importantVoIP companies and minute stealers:
They cover Jajah, Rebtel, Talkplus, Truphone, EQO Mobile, Mino Wireless and iSkoot. I would have liked to read also about Gizmo Project, Mobivox, Fring or Mobiboo. But then again the article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle, and paper isn't endless.
Numbers are adding up for international callers
Internet services help to cut consumers' phone bills
Thursday, June 21, 2007
They cover Jajah, Rebtel, Talkplus, Truphone, EQO Mobile, Mino Wireless and iSkoot. I would have liked to read also about Gizmo Project, Mobivox, Fring or Mobiboo. But then again the article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle, and paper isn't endless.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
T-Mobile UK vs. Truphone: Just the 1st of Hydra's heads
T-Mobile UK is blocking calls to mobile VoIP start-up Truphone. That's a serious issue which caused interesting discussions and points of view. As GigaOM puts it: "CellCarriers fear mobile VoIP planet". That's more or less how I see it as well.
After the fixed line carriers got shaken up by VoIP now it's the mobiles' turn. T-Mobile UK tries to defend its well established business. Maybe Truphone shouldn't have said that they now support VoIP over 3G. It's the old fear of the traditional mobile carriers and one of the main reasons why they kept the mobile data rates sky high in the last years: To loose their comfortable voice revenues.
Rebtel's CEO Hjalmar Windbladh explained to me not so long ago that mobile carries pay only 0.8 Cent to connect a call between Germany and China. But they charge 1 Euro or more from the customer, depending on his contract. These big margins would get lost with VoIP over 3G and maybe that's the reason why T-Mobile UK wants to dry out its competition before it gets too strong.
But this is like trying to cut all of Hydra's heads. It's not only Truphone which is offering VoIP over 3G and over Wifi. It's also Fring, Wifimobile, Mobiboo, Yeigo, aql and thousands of other companies worldwide. In fact every SIP based VoIP provider can do a quite similar job like Truphone. It makes no difference if you install your SIP login data into a mobile phone or an ATA or a soft phone.
I especially like it to have my fixed line home number ring on my mobile phone. For that I use Wifi or a call forward over GSM. Outgoing calls are nearly free or free via calltrough or Wifi.
Just like at Truphone.
After the fixed line carriers got shaken up by VoIP now it's the mobiles' turn. T-Mobile UK tries to defend its well established business. Maybe Truphone shouldn't have said that they now support VoIP over 3G. It's the old fear of the traditional mobile carriers and one of the main reasons why they kept the mobile data rates sky high in the last years: To loose their comfortable voice revenues.
Rebtel's CEO Hjalmar Windbladh explained to me not so long ago that mobile carries pay only 0.8 Cent to connect a call between Germany and China. But they charge 1 Euro or more from the customer, depending on his contract. These big margins would get lost with VoIP over 3G and maybe that's the reason why T-Mobile UK wants to dry out its competition before it gets too strong.
But this is like trying to cut all of Hydra's heads. It's not only Truphone which is offering VoIP over 3G and over Wifi. It's also Fring, Wifimobile, Mobiboo, Yeigo, aql and thousands of other companies worldwide. In fact every SIP based VoIP provider can do a quite similar job like Truphone. It makes no difference if you install your SIP login data into a mobile phone or an ATA or a soft phone.
I especially like it to have my fixed line home number ring on my mobile phone. For that I use Wifi or a call forward over GSM. Outgoing calls are nearly free or free via calltrough or Wifi.
Just like at Truphone.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Jangl is the new Rebtel
"Jangl marries email to the phone" says Alec Saunders about Jangl's recent press release ("Jangl Upgrades a Billion Phones Instantly, Adds Ability to Call Anyone Online, Worldwide, Anytime") and sees it developing into a new presence application. GigaOM thinks of it more as the future White Pages for VoIP.
I see it more as a competition to Rebtel or to Gizmo Call's free local numbers:
If you use this service right you don't have to make any international phone calls again. You can give free local numbers to all of your friends, whithout paying Rebtel's basic fee or bothering with Gizmo Call's numbers that are every time different and can disappear if you don't use them regularily.
I will directly check if I can get a Peruvian inbound number from Jangl so that my friends from Lima can call me for local prices. That's my favourite test for new inbound VoIP services.
What makes me courious is why GigaOM deleted my last comment on the new Jangle features. A technical error? Or did they get pressured by Jangle's CEO Michael Cerda, who also commented? Didn't they like what I had to say?
So I will just repeat it:
In times of VoIP every phone call can be free or a local call. No need for exaggerated per minute costs. The SIP standard has opened a Pandora's box for the telecommunications industry. People are tweaking given services, like Jangl, for their own purposes and establishing their own free networks. Voice is just another internet service like email and tends to be free. As I said: "Free calls are still the VoIP killer app to me".
UPDATE:
As I see now Jangle does not offer German nor Peruvian numbers. So I cannot use it. Which limited phone number provider do they use? A clear disadvantage, compared to Rebtel or Gizmo Call.
I see it more as a competition to Rebtel or to Gizmo Call's free local numbers:
Jangl “Call Anyone.” With “Call Anyone” simply enter someone’s email address at Jangl’s homepage to get connected. You’ll be given a phone number – local to you – to call them. During the first call, you’ll leave a voicemail, which Jangl then delivers via email. Once they receive that message, the recipient receives instructions to get a number – local to them – to call you back. This service still keeps your personal number safe, enables text messaging via SMS2 and the easy exchange of voicemails, too. Plus, Jangl works on any phone – even if your phone doesn’t normally allow you to call international numbers.Doesn't this sound like Rebtel to you?
If you use this service right you don't have to make any international phone calls again. You can give free local numbers to all of your friends, whithout paying Rebtel's basic fee or bothering with Gizmo Call's numbers that are every time different and can disappear if you don't use them regularily.
I will directly check if I can get a Peruvian inbound number from Jangl so that my friends from Lima can call me for local prices. That's my favourite test for new inbound VoIP services.
What makes me courious is why GigaOM deleted my last comment on the new Jangle features. A technical error? Or did they get pressured by Jangle's CEO Michael Cerda, who also commented? Didn't they like what I had to say?
So I will just repeat it:
In times of VoIP every phone call can be free or a local call. No need for exaggerated per minute costs. The SIP standard has opened a Pandora's box for the telecommunications industry. People are tweaking given services, like Jangl, for their own purposes and establishing their own free networks. Voice is just another internet service like email and tends to be free. As I said: "Free calls are still the VoIP killer app to me".
UPDATE:
As I see now Jangle does not offer German nor Peruvian numbers. So I cannot use it. Which limited phone number provider do they use? A clear disadvantage, compared to Rebtel or Gizmo Call.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Tpad to involuntarily offer free phone calls worldwide?
It seems that the fellows at Tpad are eager to open the telecommunications industry's Pandora's box a little bit more. If they really follow this trail, it will be one step more to a worldwide breakdown of phone call margins. A sickness that's highly contagious from VoIP companies to incumbent carries to even mobile operators. I sometimes feel like an epidemic doctor and today I found another sign of deterioriation at the patient: Tpad, which offers local break in numbers for its VoIP services in many countries, wants use toll free numbers now.
The setup is quite easy. Just define your Tpad account as incoming number in a hosted PBX, which you can get for free at PBXes.com. Or you install the free Asterisk in your webspace. Unfortunately my preferred company Voxalot doesn't provide the necessary features yet, but they are working on it.
For the outgoing calls I recommend Voipstunt, which offers free calls to 40 countries, or another company of their mothership Betamax. After that you can virtually throw away your computer, ATA, Wifi phone or whatever you have used for VoIP. Just call the toll free Tpad number of your country, then dial your Tpad account number, your PBX calltrough PIN and the number you want to call. The call enters on the free Tpad number and will be connected for free via Voipstunt.
Well, I admit that this seems a lot of numbers to dial. But you can automatize it by installing the mobile callthrough manager from Runningmobile on your cell phone. Just tell the program once your account numbers and then start making your phone calls. The cell phone behaves as always, only that it dials in the background some more numbers, which you don't notice.
You can even share this free service with your friends. Just tell them which toll free number they have to dial and how it works! Of course you should setup some rules in your PBX to prevent that someone calls a country that isn't free. I for instance have as of today 248 freedays in my Voipstunt account. This means 248 days of free calls to any regular landline in: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong (+mobile), Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico (+mobile), Russian Federation, Singapore (+mobile), South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States (+mobile). And the rest of the world they offer quite cheap.
If that's not enough and you also want to do free calls to mobile phones then install Tpad as incoming number in a PBX with free calls to cell phones, such as 4S newcom's. They can equip their IP PBX with SIM cards of all mobile phone providers of your country. Of course with flat rate tariffs, so that you can call all mobile phones for free.
In fact the described free calling service is in itself nothing new. Vonage also offers similar toll free numbers, but only for subscribers of their service, which costs 25 dollars a month. Tpad's accounts are free.
Reviewing this scheme I start to doubt that Tpad will really implement these toll free numbers. I understand why they are planning it: So that people can use Tpad for their calls without even having a computer. Tpad is very strong in countries like Pakistan and India where many poor people live. The company counts on that these clients will use Tpad also for the outgoing calls to the PSTN. And therefore they sponsor the toll free number.
But that's not necessary if you know to creatively use the SIP standard.
Do you know what that means?Jajah, Rebtel, Truphone, Vonage and the like can go home then. And Tpad pays the phone bill. No need for a computer, a Wifi phone or an ATA. Just plain 0800 numbers that everyone can call for free from his landline or cell phone. Even people who don't have a computer or technical skills can make their calls for free.
Free phone calls from nearly every country to every country!
The setup is quite easy. Just define your Tpad account as incoming number in a hosted PBX, which you can get for free at PBXes.com. Or you install the free Asterisk in your webspace. Unfortunately my preferred company Voxalot doesn't provide the necessary features yet, but they are working on it.
For the outgoing calls I recommend Voipstunt, which offers free calls to 40 countries, or another company of their mothership Betamax. After that you can virtually throw away your computer, ATA, Wifi phone or whatever you have used for VoIP. Just call the toll free Tpad number of your country, then dial your Tpad account number, your PBX calltrough PIN and the number you want to call. The call enters on the free Tpad number and will be connected for free via Voipstunt.
Well, I admit that this seems a lot of numbers to dial. But you can automatize it by installing the mobile callthrough manager from Runningmobile on your cell phone. Just tell the program once your account numbers and then start making your phone calls. The cell phone behaves as always, only that it dials in the background some more numbers, which you don't notice.
You can even share this free service with your friends. Just tell them which toll free number they have to dial and how it works! Of course you should setup some rules in your PBX to prevent that someone calls a country that isn't free. I for instance have as of today 248 freedays in my Voipstunt account. This means 248 days of free calls to any regular landline in: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong (+mobile), Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico (+mobile), Russian Federation, Singapore (+mobile), South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom and the United States (+mobile). And the rest of the world they offer quite cheap.
If that's not enough and you also want to do free calls to mobile phones then install Tpad as incoming number in a PBX with free calls to cell phones, such as 4S newcom's. They can equip their IP PBX with SIM cards of all mobile phone providers of your country. Of course with flat rate tariffs, so that you can call all mobile phones for free.
In fact the described free calling service is in itself nothing new. Vonage also offers similar toll free numbers, but only for subscribers of their service, which costs 25 dollars a month. Tpad's accounts are free.
Reviewing this scheme I start to doubt that Tpad will really implement these toll free numbers. I understand why they are planning it: So that people can use Tpad for their calls without even having a computer. Tpad is very strong in countries like Pakistan and India where many poor people live. The company counts on that these clients will use Tpad also for the outgoing calls to the PSTN. And therefore they sponsor the toll free number.
But that's not necessary if you know to creatively use the SIP standard.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
More tricks for free phone calls
Yesterday I told under the headline „Why mobile and landline phone calls will soon be free“ my outlook on the future of telecommunications. I am sure that per minute charges for landline and mobile phone calls will soon be a thing of the past. Even a 29 dollar monthly flatrate for all calls will seem too expensive. But not because the companies change their business models. It's the clients who find ways to circumvent the paid networks. They leverage their phone costs by using the SIP standard which can be seen as a Pandora's box to the industry.
Today I want to show you some other examples how I would do it. I'll also try to explain how the companies try to avoid these tricks. Skype and Truphone for instance try to stay out of the rat race by avoiding to implement the whole functionality of the SIP standard. Skype more than Truphone, obviously. Rebtel tries to tie up their clients to pay 1 Dollar a week for their incoming numbers. Jajah wants you to deposit at least 5 dollars on your account to charge you for their callback service. But they all can be beaten.
Connect Skype to a normal phone:
Skype relies on its own closed communication standard and until now there were no easy ways to use Skype on your normal phone. But maybe these days are over.
The VoSKY Exchange from abpTECH alleges to be the world's first product to seamlessly bridge an existing PBX to the Skype network. It adds four Skype lines to your PBX, and extends the benefit of Skype to every extension in your office.
At CeBIT the Italian company PCService presented in march their Linux software Skip2PBX, which serves as an addition to a company's existing PBX. Installed on a Linux machine, which can also be virtual, it controls up to 30 Skype accounts at one time, using different sessions of the Skype program. When a Skype call arrives it's being redirected to a phone. The Users can call their Skype contacts for free by using short numbers on their phone.
But the easiest way is certainly to use Fring on a mobile phone. Why hassle with the PBX when there is a phone software that communicates with all kind of messengers and SIP phone networks? Fring works on Wifi and 3G.
Get a cheap incoming phone number for Truphone:
Truphone has another interesting way to assure their income. They give free calls to 40 countries worldwide until end of June, but maybe this special offer will last forever. It's not only a marketing gag, they just have another source of income. The Truphone numbers in the UK are mobile phone numbers. To call them is quite pricey and Truphone takes its share from the incoming calls, as a Truphone network engineer affirms.
But there is an easy way to avoid these costs:
Install Sipgate as a second SIP provider in your mobile phone. So people can call you on your free Sipgate landline number. You can even set up a call forward from the Sipgate number. Just install Sipgate on Voxalot and make a call forward to your Truphone SIP address which has the form 447624XXXXXX@truphone.com. Your friends can call you always on your Sipgate number, but poor Truphone (which you will probably use for the free outbound calls) will not earn on the inbound leg from PSTN anymore.
Truphone always tried to prevent this kind of tweaking by not showing to their costumers their own SIP password. Truphone's software leaves it encrypted on the Nokia mobile phone to prevent that people use the service on other devices, circumventing the Truphone network. So do the Sipgate workaround! Calls between Sipgate and their partner networks are free, that's understood.
Get lots of inbound numbers like at Rebtel:
One business of Rebtel is to give you local incoming phone numbers in many countries and charge a dollar a week for that. But why should you pay when there are free incoming numbers? I, for instance, have dozens of SIP accounts with their respective inbound numbers from different countries concentrated at Voxalot. No matter which number you call, they all ring on the same phone. The thing gets even more funny because my Voxalot account works with Sipbroker and Tpad. They have inbound number in nearly every country of the world. You can call them at a local rate, dial the account number and my phone will ring.
Free Jajah like web callback:
Voxalot even has a Jajah like web callback. But other than Jajah these calls can cost you nothing if you use free VoIP providers on both legs of the call. There is also a version for cell phones at mobile.voxalot.com which costs nearly nothing for the mobile data. Enjoy your free calls!
Of course the described services also work on mobile phones outside Wifi, using an IP PBX with GSM SIM cards as 4S newcom offers.
Today I want to show you some other examples how I would do it. I'll also try to explain how the companies try to avoid these tricks. Skype and Truphone for instance try to stay out of the rat race by avoiding to implement the whole functionality of the SIP standard. Skype more than Truphone, obviously. Rebtel tries to tie up their clients to pay 1 Dollar a week for their incoming numbers. Jajah wants you to deposit at least 5 dollars on your account to charge you for their callback service. But they all can be beaten.
Connect Skype to a normal phone:
Skype relies on its own closed communication standard and until now there were no easy ways to use Skype on your normal phone. But maybe these days are over.
The VoSKY Exchange from abpTECH alleges to be the world's first product to seamlessly bridge an existing PBX to the Skype network. It adds four Skype lines to your PBX, and extends the benefit of Skype to every extension in your office.
At CeBIT the Italian company PCService presented in march their Linux software Skip2PBX, which serves as an addition to a company's existing PBX. Installed on a Linux machine, which can also be virtual, it controls up to 30 Skype accounts at one time, using different sessions of the Skype program. When a Skype call arrives it's being redirected to a phone. The Users can call their Skype contacts for free by using short numbers on their phone.
But the easiest way is certainly to use Fring on a mobile phone. Why hassle with the PBX when there is a phone software that communicates with all kind of messengers and SIP phone networks? Fring works on Wifi and 3G.
Get a cheap incoming phone number for Truphone:
Truphone has another interesting way to assure their income. They give free calls to 40 countries worldwide until end of June, but maybe this special offer will last forever. It's not only a marketing gag, they just have another source of income. The Truphone numbers in the UK are mobile phone numbers. To call them is quite pricey and Truphone takes its share from the incoming calls, as a Truphone network engineer affirms.
But there is an easy way to avoid these costs:
Install Sipgate as a second SIP provider in your mobile phone. So people can call you on your free Sipgate landline number. You can even set up a call forward from the Sipgate number. Just install Sipgate on Voxalot and make a call forward to your Truphone SIP address which has the form 447624XXXXXX@truphone.com. Your friends can call you always on your Sipgate number, but poor Truphone (which you will probably use for the free outbound calls) will not earn on the inbound leg from PSTN anymore.
Truphone always tried to prevent this kind of tweaking by not showing to their costumers their own SIP password. Truphone's software leaves it encrypted on the Nokia mobile phone to prevent that people use the service on other devices, circumventing the Truphone network. So do the Sipgate workaround! Calls between Sipgate and their partner networks are free, that's understood.
Get lots of inbound numbers like at Rebtel:
One business of Rebtel is to give you local incoming phone numbers in many countries and charge a dollar a week for that. But why should you pay when there are free incoming numbers? I, for instance, have dozens of SIP accounts with their respective inbound numbers from different countries concentrated at Voxalot. No matter which number you call, they all ring on the same phone. The thing gets even more funny because my Voxalot account works with Sipbroker and Tpad. They have inbound number in nearly every country of the world. You can call them at a local rate, dial the account number and my phone will ring.
Free Jajah like web callback:
Voxalot even has a Jajah like web callback. But other than Jajah these calls can cost you nothing if you use free VoIP providers on both legs of the call. There is also a version for cell phones at mobile.voxalot.com which costs nearly nothing for the mobile data. Enjoy your free calls!
Of course the described services also work on mobile phones outside Wifi, using an IP PBX with GSM SIM cards as 4S newcom offers.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Is Rebtel moving into Wifi telephony?
Yesterday I have been quoted in Rebtel's new blog. My name was mentioned together with luminaries like Andy Abramson and Om Malik. Of course that makes me proud. The text was about the minute stealers debate and Rebtel finally admitted:
Well, I would be prepared to check it out. I just installed the Wifi access point on my brand new Nokia E61.
But before Rebtel starts to rely even more on Wifi I would recommend them to get a new office in Sweden. The last time I talked to Rebtel's CEO Hjalmar Windbladh he was calling me by Wifi on his Nokia N80. The conversation was cut every few minutes until I gave up and called him on his fixed line. The explanation: Every few minutes when a tramway passes the Rebtel office the Wifi quality is severely affected and the calls drop.
One more thought:
Rebtel seems to have one of the biggest amount of inbound numbers in the VoIP industry. They offer RebIn numbers in 37 countries.
This means they give real local phone numbers to their costumers, which can be called from PSTN networks and are in fact SIP numbers, only that they don't work on softphones or ATAs. I could for instance get a Peruvian phone number to ring on my phone in Berlin.
I suppose these RebIn numbers would theoretically also work as SIP numbers on Wifi phones, the way Truphone does it. With this service Rebtel could blow Truphone all away. They would really become the worldwide Wifi phone network that Truphone tries to be. But Truphone clients get only numbers from the US or the UK with their accounts.
The question remains as posed last week; why does nobody admit that their company is a minute stealer?But sometimes in blogs the real news leak slowly, pouring from the comments section. The question is now: Will Rebtel launch a new service on Wifi phones? Until now they make VoIP telephony possible even on the oldest cell phones, using callback and calltrough services. But their newest blog post makes me wonder what they are planning next. It shows the following quotes in the comment section:
Well, we at Rebtel are minute stealers, and proud of it.
Vivek Puri Says:And then comes the answer the answer of Rebtel's Chief Marketing Officer Will Harris:
March 21st, 2007 at 5:40 am
Your argument is right and might apply more for people who are not that smart about what they pay. Most of the international callers are already placing VoIP lines on either ends to call for free. Also what about WiFi based mobile calling. Can Rebtel compete with them? Or How exactly Rebtel plans to compete would be the right question.
Will Says:I am so courious what that means. Will Rebtel start a service like Truphone on Wifi equipped cell phones? Will they finally give SIP addresses to their Rebtel inbound numbers?
March 21st, 2007 at 10:00 am
we will be right at the vanguard of the wifi revolution, rest assured vivek. it’s going to be fun! we’ll be announcing stuff shortly.
thanks for your comments
Well, I would be prepared to check it out. I just installed the Wifi access point on my brand new Nokia E61.
But before Rebtel starts to rely even more on Wifi I would recommend them to get a new office in Sweden. The last time I talked to Rebtel's CEO Hjalmar Windbladh he was calling me by Wifi on his Nokia N80. The conversation was cut every few minutes until I gave up and called him on his fixed line. The explanation: Every few minutes when a tramway passes the Rebtel office the Wifi quality is severely affected and the calls drop.
One more thought:
Rebtel seems to have one of the biggest amount of inbound numbers in the VoIP industry. They offer RebIn numbers in 37 countries.
This means they give real local phone numbers to their costumers, which can be called from PSTN networks and are in fact SIP numbers, only that they don't work on softphones or ATAs. I could for instance get a Peruvian phone number to ring on my phone in Berlin.
I suppose these RebIn numbers would theoretically also work as SIP numbers on Wifi phones, the way Truphone does it. With this service Rebtel could blow Truphone all away. They would really become the worldwide Wifi phone network that Truphone tries to be. But Truphone clients get only numbers from the US or the UK with their accounts.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Why does nobody admit that his company is a „minute stealer“?
I really like the term „minute stealer“ that Andy Abramson and Om Malik brought up. It explains in a very short way that VoIP companies like Jajah, Rebtel, Cellity, Truphone and others take shares of the telephony market from the well established, often monopoly like, old phone companies and make calls cheaper by tunneling them trough the internet. In the last months we should also speak of „mobile minute stealers“ since they do it also with cell phone calls that are even more expensive.
This is a great opportunity and so I wonder why nearly none of the new companies wants to call themselves a „minute stealer“. Are they afraid of waking the sleeping enemy?
Last week I researched for an article in a German economy magazine and talked to many important people in this market: Ari Virtanen (Vice President Convergence Products, Multimedia of Nokia), Eric Lagier (Head of Mobile Business Development at Skype), Roman Scharf (CEO of Jajah), Alexander Straub (co-founder of Truphone), Hjalmar Windbladh (CEO of Rebtel), Tim von Törne (co-founder of Cellity) and also to analysts, users and cell phone companies. Most of them say that they are no „minute stealers“ and no danger to established cell phone companies.
„A survey showed that 55 per cent of all Skype users never made a international mobile phone call“, told Eric Lagier from Skype. „So Skype is no competition to the mobile operators. If theses people now use Skype mobile to contact their friends abroad this does not take away mobile minutes from the operator.“ He refered to Skype on Wifi PDAs and Skype on mobile phones which „3“ offers together with an unlimited data deal in the UK and soon in Sweden and Denmark.
A similar contained comment came from Tim von Törne, co-founder of Cellity, which tunnels cell phone calls for small prices trough fixed phone lines: „We don't steal minutes, we only lower the prices.“ The rest of his argumentation was nearly the same like Roman Scharf's from Jajah: „With Jajah the mobile operator does not loose his client. He only does some international mobile calls with us but the operator can still bill him the local calls and the base fee.“ Then he passes the bill to others: „The real threat are Wifi phones because they bypass the mobile operators at all.“
Nicely put. So Nokia, which is the actual market leader for Wifi/GSM mobile phones, must be in trouble with Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2 and other mobile operators. Until now they are Nokia's biggest clients, but the new cell phones like E61, E70 or N81ie make Wifi calls possible and allow the easy installation of services like Jajah and Cellity which must hurt them. Does Nokia leave a sinking ship, with everytime smaller margins in the mobile phone industry, to concentrate with it's Wifi/GSM phones on the office market with its gross margins?
„Nokia has not changed it's strategy“, said Ari Virtanen, Vice President Convergence Products, Multimedia of Nokia. „I cannot see any conflict between Nokia and the mobile operators because of the Wifi capabilities.“ Really? I can't believe it. In Germany you can buy the E61 for 1 Euro together with a cell phone contract. „Most heavy mobile phone users spend 80 per cent of their time in Wifi areas: at home and in the office“, says Harry Behrens, CEO of 4S newcom. „Why should they use then expensive mobile phone connections when they can call with the same device nearly for free on Wifi?“
Sounds logically to me, a perfect „minute stealer“ scenario.
You have to keep in mind that people who download music for free instead of buying it on CD are persecuted and called thiefs. Even if they wouldn't have bought the CD anyway. So in music a person who uses an alternative way to access to songs is a „music stealer“ and a danger to the industry. But in telecommunications a person who uses an alternative way to access to mobile communication for free is no „minute stealer“ and no danger to the industry? Not quite convincing.
I agree more with Rebtel's Hjalmar Windbladh who said that „today's prices for mobile internet, mobile international phone calls and SMS are a daylight robbery“. Companies like Vodafone pay only 0,8 Euro Cent a minute for a mobile phone call from Germany to China, he explained to me. „So why do they cash 1 Euro or more from their costumers?“. This „toxic pricing“, as Windbladh calls it, brought in the „minute stealers“ like Rebtel which can connect the same phone call for some Cents. At least Alexander Straub of Truphone was not afraid to tell that „we are building our own network which allows free mobile phone calls worldwide.“
You companies ARE stealing minutes and you do quite a good job in it! When I compare your prices with my normal cell phone costs they can save me between 50 and 90 per cent. Be proud of it and don't hesitat to use the name „minute stealer“!
The network operators have understood your business anyway and they already have you on their radar. Rolf Hansen, CEO of the German MVNO Simyo even recommends to use Jajah for international calls since he cannot lower their prices in the near future. Vodafone, E-Plus and T-Mobile told me that they don't see you as a danger since you are still so small. But you will not be forever.
But maybe these companies just want to stay under the radar and don't want to attract too much attention. Their businesses live from very small margins on the phone minute. Often it's far less than a Cent. The big companies can push them out of business by just lowering their prices a little bit. Or they do it like AT&T which with one stroke of a feather created the largest unlimited calling community in the US: 100 million AT&T wireless and wireline phone numbers can call each other now for free.
Who will install then the software of the „minute stealers“ on his mobile phone?
This is a great opportunity and so I wonder why nearly none of the new companies wants to call themselves a „minute stealer“. Are they afraid of waking the sleeping enemy?
Last week I researched for an article in a German economy magazine and talked to many important people in this market: Ari Virtanen (Vice President Convergence Products, Multimedia of Nokia), Eric Lagier (Head of Mobile Business Development at Skype), Roman Scharf (CEO of Jajah), Alexander Straub (co-founder of Truphone), Hjalmar Windbladh (CEO of Rebtel), Tim von Törne (co-founder of Cellity) and also to analysts, users and cell phone companies. Most of them say that they are no „minute stealers“ and no danger to established cell phone companies.
„A survey showed that 55 per cent of all Skype users never made a international mobile phone call“, told Eric Lagier from Skype. „So Skype is no competition to the mobile operators. If theses people now use Skype mobile to contact their friends abroad this does not take away mobile minutes from the operator.“ He refered to Skype on Wifi PDAs and Skype on mobile phones which „3“ offers together with an unlimited data deal in the UK and soon in Sweden and Denmark.
A similar contained comment came from Tim von Törne, co-founder of Cellity, which tunnels cell phone calls for small prices trough fixed phone lines: „We don't steal minutes, we only lower the prices.“ The rest of his argumentation was nearly the same like Roman Scharf's from Jajah: „With Jajah the mobile operator does not loose his client. He only does some international mobile calls with us but the operator can still bill him the local calls and the base fee.“ Then he passes the bill to others: „The real threat are Wifi phones because they bypass the mobile operators at all.“
Nicely put. So Nokia, which is the actual market leader for Wifi/GSM mobile phones, must be in trouble with Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2 and other mobile operators. Until now they are Nokia's biggest clients, but the new cell phones like E61, E70 or N81ie make Wifi calls possible and allow the easy installation of services like Jajah and Cellity which must hurt them. Does Nokia leave a sinking ship, with everytime smaller margins in the mobile phone industry, to concentrate with it's Wifi/GSM phones on the office market with its gross margins?
„Nokia has not changed it's strategy“, said Ari Virtanen, Vice President Convergence Products, Multimedia of Nokia. „I cannot see any conflict between Nokia and the mobile operators because of the Wifi capabilities.“ Really? I can't believe it. In Germany you can buy the E61 for 1 Euro together with a cell phone contract. „Most heavy mobile phone users spend 80 per cent of their time in Wifi areas: at home and in the office“, says Harry Behrens, CEO of 4S newcom. „Why should they use then expensive mobile phone connections when they can call with the same device nearly for free on Wifi?“
Sounds logically to me, a perfect „minute stealer“ scenario.
You have to keep in mind that people who download music for free instead of buying it on CD are persecuted and called thiefs. Even if they wouldn't have bought the CD anyway. So in music a person who uses an alternative way to access to songs is a „music stealer“ and a danger to the industry. But in telecommunications a person who uses an alternative way to access to mobile communication for free is no „minute stealer“ and no danger to the industry? Not quite convincing.
I agree more with Rebtel's Hjalmar Windbladh who said that „today's prices for mobile internet, mobile international phone calls and SMS are a daylight robbery“. Companies like Vodafone pay only 0,8 Euro Cent a minute for a mobile phone call from Germany to China, he explained to me. „So why do they cash 1 Euro or more from their costumers?“. This „toxic pricing“, as Windbladh calls it, brought in the „minute stealers“ like Rebtel which can connect the same phone call for some Cents. At least Alexander Straub of Truphone was not afraid to tell that „we are building our own network which allows free mobile phone calls worldwide.“
You companies ARE stealing minutes and you do quite a good job in it! When I compare your prices with my normal cell phone costs they can save me between 50 and 90 per cent. Be proud of it and don't hesitat to use the name „minute stealer“!
The network operators have understood your business anyway and they already have you on their radar. Rolf Hansen, CEO of the German MVNO Simyo even recommends to use Jajah for international calls since he cannot lower their prices in the near future. Vodafone, E-Plus and T-Mobile told me that they don't see you as a danger since you are still so small. But you will not be forever.
But maybe these companies just want to stay under the radar and don't want to attract too much attention. Their businesses live from very small margins on the phone minute. Often it's far less than a Cent. The big companies can push them out of business by just lowering their prices a little bit. Or they do it like AT&T which with one stroke of a feather created the largest unlimited calling community in the US: 100 million AT&T wireless and wireline phone numbers can call each other now for free.
Who will install then the software of the „minute stealers“ on his mobile phone?
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