Talk gets cheaper
Cheap and even free voice telephony is just around the corner. Technology companies are developing software tools for mobile handsets that allow consumers to make dirt-cheap calls on the Internet. And the technology works very well indeed.
I am rather pleased with myself. I’ve managed to get Internet telephony working on my cellphone, thereby bypassing my cellular service provider and avoiding paying its high tariffs for voice telephony. I spent the past weekend making phone calls, of surprisingly high voice quality, to local landline and mobile numbers — all without handing over a cent to Vodacom, my network operator. All I needed was a broadband connection and a wireless hotspot.
Here’s what I did: I installed a broadband Internet service at home, supplied by Telkom. I then hooked up a wireless router (available for about R600 at any computer shop) to create a high-speed wireless local-area network — the same type of Wi-Fi network people with notebook PCs use at airports to connect to the Internet.
I then installed a small software application from a UK technology company called Software Cellular Network (the application is called Truphone and is available at truphone.com) on my handset, a Nokia E61 smartphone. You’ll need a Nokia E-series phone or a similar handset capable of supporting Wi-Fi and it must also have an SIP (session initiation protocol) stack (check your phone’s manual if you’re unsure).
Within minutes, I had the Truphone software installed and I can now dial any landline or cellular number worldwide free of charge during Truphone’s trial period, which ends on December 31. Once the trial expires, I’ll need to purchase airtime from Truphone, but for dialling international numbers I’ll still be saving a packet. If you try the service, remember to preface all dialled numbers with the necessary international dial code.
Calls to landline numbers in the UK, Hungary, Australia, the US (mainland), Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Israel, Denmark, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain and Sweden will still be free, even after the trial period has ended; calls to most mobile numbers and to territories not listed above will attract a small fee.
Assuming an exchange rate of R13,80/£, a landline call to Brazil will cost R0,54/minute; to Finland R0,36/minute; and to Japan R0,40/minute. Calls to SA landlines will be less attractive at R0,89/minute (that’s higher than Telkom’s rates); calls to SA mobiles will cost R2,19/minute (a small saving on prepaid cellular rates and some contract rates).
I am pleasantly surprised at the voice quality offered by Truphone. Sure, you need a broadband connection, but, too often, calls made using PC-based Internet telephony services such as Skype fade in and out. I made several calls and the quality of the Truphone service was exceptional. The only downside was that there was some latency, more noticeable on calls to cellphones.
I’ll be travelling to Hong Kong soon to attend the International Telecommunication Union’s annual Telecom World conference. I intend to use the available free wireless hotspots to make free calls and avoid the excessive international roaming charges levied by my service provider for outgoing calls.
Services such as Truphone promise to turn the telecom industry on its head in the next couple of years, especially as SIP-enabled handsets become more commonplace. Already, Vodacom and MTN have seen the threat.
Though they have no control over when you use a wireless hotspot to make phone calls, they can limit the use of such services on their 3G data networks, or charge more for them. MTN, for example, has said it could impose an exorbitant R25/MB charge on Internet phone calls.
Inet-Bridge
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