Aside from BT’s ongoing Fusion efforts, carriers are still sceptical about fixed-mobile convergence, according to analyst In-Stat, and still fear the technology could cannibalise their existing revenues.

In spite of all that, it appears that FMC really is seeing some take-up - In Stat says 20 percent of businesses with wi-fi use it for voice traffic and the analysts reckon that cleverer operators will dream up new applications that will see viral adoption.

The fundamental problem with FMC adoption is that it seems carriers just can’t think up the best way to sell it. Is it business or consumer? Is it just a cost-cutting exercise and, if so, how does it fit in with home zone pricing-type strategies? And if it’s about applications rather than pricing, isn’t it time we see some of those applications actually being offered to customers and being used? I think carriers need to spend a long time back at the drawing board before we’ll see FMC really seeing any substantial take up.

Good news for fans of Fring: the mobile VoIP company has released its APIs, meaning developers out there can build whatever web apps to interact with the Fring client, and take advantage of all the usual Fring functionality: presence, talk, chat, file transfer, auto-roaming and all the rest.

Opening up APIs is usually one of the smartest moves a software company can make: all sorts of creative people come up with all sorts of creative apps that get more people using your service, and you sit back and soak up the glory and extra users.

Alas, the APIs are only available for the fring client on the Symbian S60 9.2 at the moment, although Fring’s promising more platforms are on the way before too long.

Here’s Fring’s Roy and Sagi talking about the new APIs:

More information over at the developer site.

VoIP company Rebtel has inked an agreement with easyGroup to resell its mobile VoIP service through easyMobile’s website.

By signing up with Rebtel via easyMobile, users will be able to make cheap international calls over mobile VoIP using “any mobile phone, over any UK network”, according to the companies. Those signing up will pay for a local call through their operator and then a per minute charge on top for the Rebtel service - 1.3p a minute if you’re calling an Aussie landline, for example, and 10p a minute for a mobile Down Under.

The service looks a distinctly promising one - more than anything else, it looks simple to use and there’s no sign up or software downloads to put people off. We’ll be watching this one with interest.

Jonathan Jensen (or Sevendotzero to his friends) looks at Twitterfone – what does it mean and how does it make Twitter more accessible to normobs?

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Earlier this month, TwitterFone went live. This is the latest venture from telecoms entrepreneur Pat Phelan and adds a new dimension to Twitter by making it simpler to post messages to Twitter when you’re out and about. So how does TwitterFone work? You call an access number in your own country, leave a short message at the prompt; this is converted from voice to text and appears a few minutes later in your Twitter timeline. Each posted message also contains a unique URL which links to the TwitterFone website and allows anyone to hear the voice message you left. This is a really nice touch; it makes the message more personal and lets people hear what you said if the message didn’t transcribe 100%.

Messages can already be posted to Twitter when you’re out, via the mobile web site or via SMS. However there are times when neither interface is convenient, maybe when driving. Also, whilst texting is a simple and convenient way to communicate, the UK text number for Twitterfone is often excluded from inclusive SMS bundles by UK mobile operators (you know who you are!) because it’s an Isle of Man number sometimes charged at international SMS rates. So a voice call, out of inclusive minutes, is a more cost effective way to Tweet (post a message to Twitter). Using a mobile web interface may be convenient for mobile geeks but for the normobs out there, they need a simple way to post Tweets.

How well does the speech to text conversion work? In common with all speech to text conversion applications, TwitterFone will struggle in some scenarios, particularly with background noise, like traffic or wind. However I’ve been very impressed by the overall accuracy of the messages. In any event, the errors can add an air of ‘mystery’ to the Tweet!

Twitterfone has local numbers in 17 countries for easy and cheap access - UK
USA, France, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and Germany. Any user can call any local number, so when you’re travelling you just use the access number for the country you’re in – neat!

I think the real significance of TwitterFone is making Twitter simpler and easier for Normobs. Normobs expect mobile services to be simple and just work. And this is where TwitterFone scores. Making a call is the simplest (and oldest!) mobile activity!
Knowing Pat Phelan, TwitterFone won’t stand still and there’ll be lots of new features down the line. What would I like to see TwitterFone do? Have a facility to delete the message if you make a mistake when speaking. Be able to register multiple mobile numbers against a Twitterfone account so you can call in on any device – useful for us mobile geeks! Maybe send direct messages as well.
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Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

The rumours were true: BT has gone for another bite of the dual mode cherry, using an HTC smartphone, pictured here, called the BT ToGo. The dual-mode device will come bundled as part of BT’s Total Broadband Anywhere package - which covers home broadband, as well as mobile minutes, texts and 10 MB of mobile data. The phone itself will be free, and depending on how many minutes the customer signs up to, and the mobile subscription will cost between £5 and £35 extra on top of a standalone broadband option.

The problem with this, as far as I can see, is that this sort of thing screams enterprise, rather than consumer. For companies with large campuses and a lot of mobile workers, this could easily be a good fit. For consumers, however, I’m not so sure: after all, broadband tends to be bought by a household, and mobile phone contracts by the individual. There doesn’t seem to be any interesting new services being offered, so presumably the inclusion of VoIP capability is just being pitched as a cost-saving service: but with very generous mobile packages - up to 600 inclusive minutes - you could go without using the VoIP part of the service altogether.

Interesting news out of BT: according to a report in The Telegraph BT is set to debut an own-brand smartphone from HTC today.

The Telegraph reckons it will run “off BT’s Home Hubs in residential settings, and switch across to the Vodafone mobile network when out and about”Interesting news out of BT: according to a report in The Telegraph BT is set to debut an own-brand smartphone from HTC today.

The Telegraph reckons it will run “off BT’s Home Hubs in residential settings, and switch across to the Vodafone mobile network when out and about”

Having divested itself of its mobile arm some years ago and stumbled somewhat with its last mobile offering, the dual-mode VoIP/cellular service BT Fusion, it could well be a bit of an uphill struggle for the incumbent to sell mobile services to consumers again. If the Telegraph is right, then this just looks Fusion by another name: without a raft of must-have devices, better pricing or at least some new services, I’m not really sure how BT thinks Fusion will fly this time around.

After flirting with mobile VoIP for a while, Skype looks like it’s about to get properly stuck in. The company’s announced that it’s brought out a beta version of the Skype client for “50 of the most popular Java-enabled mobile phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson”.

All the usual features are enabled - chat, presence, getting calls from Skype users or through SkypeIn - for everyone, but for those in seven lucky markets (Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) there’s also outbound Skype-toSkype calls and SkypeOut functionality enabled.

The software is just a test release at the moment and its trial phase is expected to last several months. Working out whether a regular mobile or a Skype call is cheaper can still be a bit of a fiddly business and the limited functionality is a bit of a blow for those outside the seven countries Skype has given the nod, but still good to see Skype gearing up for a full-on mobile attack.

Mobile VoIP company Truphone has pulled in £16.5 million in new venture capital funding from private investors, as well as its existing backers Burda Digital Ventures, Eden Ventures, Independent News & Media, Straub Ventures and Wellington Partners.

Truphone said it will use the cash injection to develop its idea of a global SIM that gives free VoIP calls over wi-fi when there’s a hotspot around and cheap GSM mobile calls when there’s not, and to add new internet features to its service in the future.

It looks like there’s some serious momentum around Truphone at the moment - along with the funding, the company bought SIM4travel, which sells cheap roaming minutes to travellers. It’s looking like Truphone is fast getting all the piece in place for an assault on the mass market.

VoIP company Truphone has announced it has bought up the strategic assets of SIM4travel, which sells low cost roaming minutes and texts to European travellers, comprising its mobile virtual network enabler and its travel SIM capabilities. The acquisition cost Truphone £1.343 million in cash and £1.3 million in shares.

Truphone says it will start integrating SIM4travel’s GSM goodies with its own VoIP ones right away and reckons it will be several months before it’s done.

Truphone is better known for its wi-fi calling/texting service, so this acquisition will see them combining that with cheap GSM services. It’s going to be seriously interesting to see what the combined Truphone-SIM4Travel will look like - could we be witnessing the birth of Truphone as a fully-fledge MVNO?

Good news for the team at Vyke — their Mobile VoIP service is now availalbe in Nokia’s Download store. Which must put it on.. what.. a good few million handsets right-away. They’re passionate folk at Vyke — I met Aaron a while ago and found him a switched on chap — so I’m sure they’ll be delighted at this news.

If you haven’t checked out your download store recently, have a look. You should hopefully find Vyke there.

Vyke’s mobile VoIP software is found in the Download store, which is located in the main menu of compatible Nokia mobile phones. Once the download is started, the software installation and set-up process takes approximately 2 minutes to create the user’s Vyke account and top it up with $1 of free calling credit.

Let’s hear from CMO Jan Christian Berger:

“We are delighted to offer this greatly improved service with Nokia. Our new account creation and top-up features enable any new user to make mobile VoIP calls in just a matter of minutes. With access to our service directly from any The Cloud hotspot and our $0.04 per call and $0.00 per minute pricing for calls to landlines in Western Europe or any number in North America, the value we are creating for users is very compelling.”

Any Cloud hotspot? Wow. There are tons of The Cloud hotspots across the UK. I’ll need to try that out.

Thankfully Vyke will work on almost any decent E and N-Series Nokia handset including the E90.

After entering an unlimited voice price war with AT&T and Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile has pulled off another interesting move and decided to getting into the home phone game with VoIP.

It will be offering subscribers a router to connect to their home phone - it’s around $50 - and once the box is up and running, T-Mobile customers will be able to make local and long distance calls in the US for the price of $10, as long as they’re already existing mobile customers of T-Mobile.

The service is being tested in Dallas and Seattle. It sounds like a handy way for the operator to take on telcos with both a fixed and mobile business, but I’m not quite sure how it will sit alongside the companies all-you-can-eat mobile voice plans. Presumably one for the lighter users out there?

Fring, the free instant messaging/MOIP (Mobile VOIP) client, has announced an update for S60v3 users that adds new features and offers the ability to transfer files! Currently only for Gtalk and Skype, but coming soon to the other IM protocols, you can transfer files between mobiles, and also from mobile to PC. This makes it killer-easy to send pictures or video clips to friends while chatting.

Other improvements include new support for other languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Chinese. The application will even automatically check to see what language your handset is using upon installation, automatically matching it if possible. The chat function has also gotten an update, with new icons and the ability to set the d-pad center to start a chat rather than a phone call.

Head on over to Fring.com to get setup if you have an S60 handset. The update should be available for Windows Mobile handsets soon.

According to a number of reports, the BBC among them, BT has been forced to have a major rethink over its Fusion product, where one handset is used to make calls over both VoIP and mobile networks, after poor takeup.

According to those reports, BT is not dropping the service, but is going to start focusing on a more data-centric offering with a dual-mode BlackBerry-type device, and pushing the service as an enterprise product.

It’s a bit of a shame that Fusion never really took off. It was, if nothing else, an attempt to take mobile somewhere different and kill off the landline for good. That said, the tiny range of handsets was bound to put gadget-conscious users off and the pricing wasn’t as competitive as it could have been. Hopefully it’ll get a new lease of life - not to mention some whizz-bang applications - as an enterprise play.

Hictu and Jajah today announced that Jajah will be integrated into Hictu’s micro-blogging service, adding more convenience to users than ever before. Hictu is a popular micro-blogging too that allows users to easily publish video, text, and audio messages to share easily with friends, family, or whoever else. The Hictu website allows direct recording of both video and audio, and now supports Jajah, allowing users to quickly and easily get in touch with each other.

Jajah sees the move as an opportunity to help social communities grow and will allow Hictu users to easily talkfrom their phone with any other Jajah customer or with any user who has previously registered a phone number in the Jajah section of their Hictu profile.

It might be a stretch, but Google has introduced new Bots for its Google Talk service that will automatically translate IM conversations on the fly. For it to work, both chatters must add the appropriate bot to the conversation, and off it goes. For instance, if I wanted to chat with someone in Germany, I would add the German-to-English bot, and they would add the English-to-German bot, and we would then chat as normal, with the bots making it all easy cheesy.

This got me thinking about the possibility of an application that could do this through your phone (or over Skype or some other VOIP application). What if you could call someone in a foreign country and chat with them as if you were both chatting in your native tongue?

I don’t know how far off this is, but if it’s in IM, surely it can’t be too much more difficult or far off to add a text-to-speech feature, and then a speech-to-text on the other end, and then make all that happen directly on the handset, with a translator in the middle.

Things like this would really make VOIP something exciting, in my opinion, but there’s also other entertainment values as well. Think women speaking in foreign languages are hot? Does your wife nag you all the time on the phone? Next time she calls, why not switch her into French? It’s not like she expects you to remember what she’s said anyways, and at least then it’s a pleasureable conversation for you.

Any other great business opportunities you can think of with this?

Has anyone heard much about RebTel? I really liked their concept — and some friends of mine used the RebTel service for hours daily whilst they were doing intercontinental dating — however I haven’t heard much from them recently.

What have you heard?

A new research study from Disruptive Analysis (from the blogosphere’s very own Dean Bubley) shows that evolution of mobile VoIP will rapidly eclipse voice over WiFi and become a mainstream form of communication.

The analyst firm predicts that the number of VoIPo3G users could grow from virtually zero in 2007 to over 250m by the end of 2012. This is comfortably in excess of the expected number of FMC users with dual-mode VoWLAN/cellular phones.

The key point, of course, is the word could. I can see that. I can also see it going quite a few other ways depending on how things pan out with the stratospheric shifts going on in the marketplace today. 2012 used to sound like a long time away when we were in the year 1999, but it’s only — what… 5 years away now?

The report demonstrates that it will be the operators themselves which will be mainly responsible for the push towards VoIP being carried over cellular networks. Carriers will become increasingly attracted to VoIPo3G because it will enable them to fit more phone calls into their scarce spectrum allocations, reduce operating expenses by combining fixed and mobile core networks, and launch new services like push-to-talk and voice-integrated “mashups”.

VoIPo3G also fits well with the move towards femtocells. Future generations of wireless technology – 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3GPP2 UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband), WiMAX – are “all-IP”, so unless mobile operators continue to run separate voice networks in parallel, they will inevitably transition to VoIP at some point.

What do you reckon?

\You can read more — and get more information on Disruptive Analysis at www.disruptive-analysis.com/.

Here’s a quick video I took of the unboxing of the 3 Skypephone.

It’s a very straight forward, no nonsense device:

I just took it out the box, stuck it into my USB port on the Apple, left it for a while then started using it.

I’ve been sat using the 3 Skype Phone for a day now and I’m loving it. I’m in the middle of a write-up about it, and the launch yesterday.

Although not officially unveiled until later today, we’ve got all the details of the new Skype mobile - launched in conjunction with mobile operator 3. Ewan will be at the press launch later, so expect pictures soon!

The 3 Skypephone is a fully-featured 3G Internet phone with Skype built-in. In addition to Skype calls the phone makes conventional calls and can be used to access 3’s broad range of other internet services.

The handset was developed by Skype and 3 in partnership with Qualcomm, using Qualcomm’s BREW platform to enable Skype to work with core handset features such as address book and messaging. It’s got 3G, a 2-megapixel camera, mp3 player, mobile TV and internet access.

According to the information available, it’s a “small and shiny” handset, weighing in at a tiny 86 grams, and comes in black or white, with a blue or pink trim. Standby time is 320 hours, with a talk time of 270 minutes or 170 minutes of video calling. The screen is a 176 x 220 2.0″ QCIF 262K colour display, and the handset itself has 16MB of external memory plus room for up to 1GB of microSD memory card (it comes with a 256M card as standard).

Price-wise, the 3 Skypephone will be available from 3Stores or on the web from 2nd November, at £49.99 on pay-as-you-go or free with a contract. You get free Skype to Skype calls included (as expected) as long as you’re on a contract or you top up your credit monthly.

More news as it comes in..

Both 3UK and Skype (already partnered with 3UK’s X-Series service), are planning a press briefing this coming Monday to talk about developments between the two companies.

I’ll be there, possibly liveblogging, although Stuart Dredge of TechDigest will probably be there too, MacBook in hand, typing away big time — so I might leave that to him. I watched him briefly at the Blyk launch and he was knocking out the words almost as they were said, straight into what looked like the TechDigest publishing system. I’m definitely bringing my camera though…

It’s going to be an interesting set of announcements, I’m sure.

Yeigo is a South African based mobile phone network that uses the internet to connect users, bypassing operator call charges.

All you need is a data connection (3G or WiFi) and the Yeigo application does the rest.

Initially I thought this was a incoming dial service — i.e. you select the person you want to speak to and Yeigo then calls you both. However after a bit of close-up investigation, it seems Yeigo is data-based, that is, it sends your calls and instant messages via your operator’s 3g data channel or via wifi.

Obviously wifi is best, because if you try using Yeigo with a UK mobile operator, you’ll be charged in the region of 4 pounds/meg if you haven’t already signed up for an unlimited data plan. If you dare use it in Canada, you’ll be charged squillions/meg because of their ultra backward data charges.

Further, your average common-or-garden mobile operator in the United Kingdom doesn’t have much tolerance for users bypassing ridiculous mobile phone charges. e.g. You’re ok to use about 1,000mb of data on T-Mobile UK for about £7 per month… as LONG as you don’t dare use VOIP. Use VOIP and T-Mobile get nasty. Or quite simply prevent you from connecting in the first place, unless you upgrade to their top-level ~£25/month data plan.

Yeigo comes in two major flavours — Symbian or Windows Mobile…

Users who download the Symbian or Windows Mobile version of Yeigo to their mobile phones enjoy free calls and IM not just between UK-based mobiles, but between mobiles based anywhere in the world. And calls made from your mobile to landlines are significantly cheaper than what you would be charged by your operator. In addition, you can send SMSs from Yeigo to any destination in the world for substantially less than you would be charged by your operator.

But you can also run Yeigo on any java-enabled handset:

Yeigo has also introduced a Java version, Yeigo Lite – which allows users without a compatible phone for the Symbian or Windows Mobile versions – to use Yeigo’s innovative ConnectUs, IM and SMS services.

A note on data usage: The Yeigo site helpfully lists the approximate data costs and usage expecations. For example, the site advises that you will use around 100kb of data, per minute, during a call (so roughly 5.75mb per hour).

It looks like a smart service that could be particularly useful if you speak regularly to friends and family abroad and you’ve got WiFI nearby.

I’m going to download the application and give it a go shortly.

Truphone, the UK-based mobile Internet network operator, is broadening international public Wi-Fi access for its customers and automating the Wi-Fi login process at these global locations through a new agreement with Quiconnect.  This will build on and augment existing public Wi-Fi access already established by Truphone while making it far simpler and faster for its customers to make mobile VoIP calls in public places, both in the UK or abroad.

Truphone uses the Internet to deliver voice calls for customers without requiring a separate handset to be used,  as calls can be made on mass market Nokia mobile phones. Just like Skype did with PC-based VoIP calling, Truphone is making mobile VoIP a reality today worldwide.  Using open source and standards-based software, Truphone calls are routed over Wi-Fi using SIP[1] and RTP[2] .

According to analysts, ON World Inc, the mobile VoIP market will see staggering growth with 70.6 million consumer cell-VoIP users expected by 2011, up from 480,000 last year.

Truphone will licence Quiconnect’s Connector software, embedding it into its own solution, so that customers’ handsets will automatically be authenticated at public Wi-Fi locations when in range. This means the cumbersome process of inputting login details prior to making calls is avoided as all the credentials and various scripts required for a customer to log onto a network are already preloaded.  Truphone customers can therefore be completely focused on what they really want to do and that is to make telephone calls rather than worrying about access and log in.

As part of the agreement, Quiconnect will create a virtual Wi-Fi network for Truphone so that customers can access the Truphone service from public Wi-Fi hotspots across the world, including the most important, high traffic locations such as hotels, airports, conference centres, coffee shops and train stations.

Since active interconnections commenced in 2001, Quiconnect has built extensive virtual public Wi-Fi networks for its customers establishing numerous agreements with the world’s leading telecoms companies and network operators and connecting them to its platform.  This includes BT, Sprint Nextel, SFR, VSNL, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, various Chinese operators along with numerous network operators globally.

Over the next 12 months, Quiconnect will be establishing multiple relationships for Truphone with a number of companies, focused on the USA and Europe initially, so that customers travelling abroad can avoid paying GSM roaming charges by making and receiving low cost VoIP calls (where legal) on their mobiles.  Quiconnect is also providing all the necessary financial and clearing house intermediary services to facilitate this.

Luke Vinogradov, Quiconnect’s senior marketing manager, new products, says, “For the first time, we will be adding presence capabilities and creating arrangements with local Wi-Fi operators whereby Truphone customers don’t need to have local subscriptions with operators to access their networks.  Presence capabilities means customers will be automatically logged in at Wi-Fi locations but will only pay once a mobile VoIP call is made just like in the GSM world.  This is fundamentally different from current Wi-Fi pricing models, where you start paying when you connect to a hotspot. We expect this new approach to pricing to make mobile VoIP usage explode.”

James Tagg, Truphone’s founder and CEO, says “Quiconnect does two important things for Truphone: it makes thousands of public Wi-Fi locations worldwide accessible and makes it easy to connect to them. Our customers can now just take their phones out in these public locations and make Truphone calls without even thinking about it.”

Truphone selected Quiconnect as its public Wi-Fi integration partner because of its extensive wireless broadband industry expertise, new approaches to support innovative Wi-Fi pricing models, the broad relationships established with service providers and network operators, as well as technologies developed like Connector software.

Ali Khan, Truphone’s director of business development says, “Going to each and every network vendor or service provider to establish agreements would be hugely time consuming.  Working with Quiconnect centralises all this and capitalises on what they have already done.  This means rapid network creation for us so that users can get pervasive access, plus clearly an opportunity for local Wi-Fi providers to increase revenue from their infrastructure by capitalising on the interest in mobile VoIP.”

Truphone is the first company to take advantage of Quiconnect’s new range of solutions for application providers to make its services available over wireless broadband.  This includes connectivity tools for automated login of mobile devices on commercial Wi-Fi hotspots (Connector software); network integration and management services to connect large networks spanning multiple operators and geographies; and data and financial clearing services which provide flexible charging models based on the device used and application.

Yet another example of the progressive nature of the team at 3UK. Fantastic. I wonder how the market will react to this. We’ll see. And we’ll get a handset and put it through it’s paces soon.

Link: Skype To Launch Own Mobile Phone

Skype is planning to launch its own mobile handset this month, following in the footsteps of Apple, and the all but confirmed mobile phone from Google.

According to BusinessWeek, Skype will offer the handset in conjunction with 3 Mobile in “late October” in Britain, Italy, Hong Kong, and Australia, with the 5 remaining 3 Mobile terrotories to follow. For anyone who has ever looked on in envy at tech rollouts in the United States, there are no plans at this stage to launch the mobile phone State side

I was pleased, from one perspective, to read that Vonage is still drifting along in the United Kingdom. They’ve just hired a new agency to BOOOOST direct-customer-contact. I always liked the concept of Vonage. I was one of their first UK customers. But I was failed, not necessarily by Vonage, but by the ridiculously rubbish broadband speeds in suburban Essex (30 miles from London).

Twice, I used Vonage to make outgoing phone calls. Both times I had to redial the person I was speaking to on my normal landline because the quality was so poor.

I used Vonage to get incoming calls…. until, again, I had to redial people because I couldn’t hear them — or vice versa. Just terrible.

There wasn’t enough throughput on the top of the line expensive broadband connection I was using.

I daresay Vonage works fine if you live in Central London 100 metres from the exchange. But if you’re sat in suburban land surrounded by kids leeching Youtube all day, your 2mb broadband connection is likely to offer 10-15k/sec real data throughput… which will keep MSN working but not much else.

Link: Netimperative - Vonage hires Profero for UK marketing drive

Internet phone company Vonage has appointed Profero Performance to update its digital customer acquisition strategy with a six-figure campaign.

Vonage aims to challenge the traditional fixed line and low-cost international call carriers by promoting its internet phone service to specific UK consumer segments.

So, it doesn’t matter how good the marketing is… if your home internet connection is rubbish, your Vonage service will be rubbish too.

(I dumped my Vonage service a while ago… if you’re having a good experience with it, do email me so I can document a positive perspective too. You can read about my horrific Vonage experiences here…)