Ring Fring

Posted on April 23, 2008

Get ready for free VoIP calls on your iPhone. An Israeli company called Fring announced that it has started public testing of an application for the iPhone called Fring, which allows users to make and receive calls using voice over IP technology. Fring bypasses any cellphone carrier and relies solely on an Internet connection to make a call.

But here’s the kicker. Fring lets users make VoIP calls over 3G or EDGE data connections, which is a big plus. With Fring, all you would need would be a data subscription to begin making those free calls. Of course, should this take off, you can immediately expect carriers to start attempting to block voice traffic over data networks, unless they are legally prevented from doing so. They surely will be proactive about their voice business melting away. They may refuse to sell data subscriptions without an accompanying voice subscription. Something like the reluctance to provide ‘naked DSL’ on the wired side.

Call quality? According to Fring, the application will dynamically adjust audio quality depending on the type of connection it detects.

This is a big deal for iPhone users, and even Apple itself. The partnership between Apple and carriers such as AT&T becomes almost meaningless. Most of the time, with available WiFi access points, you can connect and start making calls. Bypass those pesky long distance. You should be able to use any of hundreds of SIP-based providers such as Eutelia, GizmoProject, VoipCheap, VoipStunt, Free World, SIPNET over fring, even from non-SIP enabled handsets.

Fring is also a fabulous instant messenger which supports all the popular IMs, including: MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, AIM, Twitter, Google Talk, SIP, and Skype (supports SkypeOut).