As soon as Skype released its iPhone application, problems emerged with using it with carriers both in Europe and the US.
In a USA Today article last week, a senior AT&T official, Jim Cicconi, suggested that the carrier, in cooperation with Apple, expects device vendors to block consumers’ access to Skype’s VoIP application that competes with AT&T’s own voice service. "Skype is a competitor, just like Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile,” he said.
After releasing its application for the iPhone, Android-powered devices and other Java-enabled mobile phones, as well as for Windows Mobile, Skype announced at CTIA WIRELESS 2009 in Las Vegas that the lite version of Skype, a ‘thin’ Skype client for mobile phones, will soon be available as a free download for BlackBerry smartphones.
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Zer01 will launch its "True" mobile VoIP service in the US on July 1st.
Making the announcement at CTIA Wireless, the company said the unlimited voice and data plan will cost USD $69.99 and will support Windows Mobile 6 and newer smartphones.
Virtual PBX and Gizmo5 have announced a new collaboration that they claim offers a business phone solution with the industry’s deepest feature set at a price level well below current standards.
Built on an open-system VoIP peering platform, the new service combines the products of both companies.
Skype is now available for the iPhone – and will be coming to BlackBerry in May.
The VoIP app on the iPhone will only work over Wi-Fi and not 3G. It will allow iPhone subscribers to use phone numbers in their existing iPhone address book – without the need for duplicate lists.
As always, it allows free calls between Skype users and charges for calls to landlines or mobiles.
UPDATE: Since being released on Tuesday it has emerged that Skype on iPhone does works over 3G, despite being intended only for use with WiFi.
More than 600 telco leaders are due to attend East Africa’s premier learning and networking event which gets underway on Wednesday.
East Africa Com is a two-day, multi-streamed conference with a 40+ stand networking exhibition.
The conference is the only event to represent the East African region and evolved from the highly successful GSM>3G World Series.
Avaya today announced the launch of a new SIP-based architecture that integrates communications across multi-vendor, multi-location and multi-modal businesses.
Called Aura, the company said it is centered on the new open standards Aura Session Manager, which centralizes communications control and application integration.
8×8 today announced the availability of an enterprise version of its hosted IP PBX phone service.
The solution is intended for deployment in larger organizations located in either a single building, a campus environment or distributed across multiple locations.
INTERVIEW: Larry Stessel, CMO of i2Telecom, talks to voip.biz-news about a new mobile VoIP solution being readied for launch.
The new technology will allow users to make low-cost international calls from anywhere in the world using one SIM card.
i2Telecom’s MyGlobalTalk was the winner of voip.biz-news’ Product of the Year Award 2008.
The CEO of Gizmo5 Michael Robertson has responded to last week’s announcement of Skype for SIP by posting a comparison (see below) of the new service and his own company’s OpenSky.
While welcoming Skype’s initiative, he described it as a "vaporware announcement" with "murky pricing details".