Speak and SMS for free

The company already has millions of users around the world but isn’t making any money yet.
Click to expand...

I know I might not be the brightest crayon in the pack, but how does a company run without making at least some form of profit?

I mean, maybe they don't make AS MUCH as others would, but they should still make a profit so in a sense, this oke is lying.
 
gdiza said:
I know I might not be the brightest crayon in the pack, but how does a company run without making at least some form of profit?

I mean, maybe they don't make AS MUCH as others would, but they should still make a profit so in a sense, this oke is lying.
Click to expand...

Its not the profits that make this company attractive to a take over, its their client base.

You Tube wasn't exactly making a profit, but they had a customer base that Google wanted.
 
gdiza said:
I know I might not be the brightest crayon in the pack, but how does a company run without making at least some form of profit?

I mean, maybe they don't make AS MUCH as others would, but they should still make a profit so in a sense, this oke is lying.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... is this a company in that sense, or just a skype spinoff... maybe they get money from Skype as a contrator? Maybe it started as a hobby and ended up a great product... who knows.

From their site:
fring™ is a mobile internet service & community that enables users to talk, chat & interact with other fringsters™ and their online communities, from their mobile phones.

Originating from a vision of freedom, fring was born out of a desire to fundamentally change the way people communicate. The fring founders, veterans of the mobile, internet and high tech industries, joined together to create an easy to use, consumer-centric, truly converged peer-to-peer service, enabling its users to take control of their online communications from one single place on their mobile phone, utilizing the handset’s inherent internet capabilities to do so.

fring sits at the heart of the fringsters™ online communication world allowing the freedom to communicate with all popular communities’ members (Skype®, MSN® Messenger, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!™, AIM®) without boundaries, and regardless of device, network operator, platform or the community(ies) to which they belong.

The ethos of encouraging freedom and mobility extends to giving fringsters the choice between available connection types (3G, EDGE, GPRS or Wi-Fi) and the enjoyment of fring’s benefits without subscription; fring is totally free to download and free to use - the only cost incurred by the user is the mobile internet connection.
Click to expand...

Also, they have a partners section...
http://www.fring.com/partners/
 
Last edited:
Kokop said:
Its not the profits that make this company attractive to a take over, its their client base.

You Tube wasn't exactly making a profit, but they had a customer base that Google wanted.
Click to expand...

I think you have a point there Kopkop... looks to me like another skype waiting to be purchased...
 
Ah, so it's not exactly free SMSs - it's free instant messaging. That's a completely different thing.
 
Bernie said:
I wouldn't say its free, you have to use your data bundle. At R2/meg (out of bundle) I wounder if this would not be more expensive than say a normal call.
Click to expand...

Not at all. A friend called me from his Skype on his Nokia N95 and it cost him around 30-40c per minute. This is way cheaper than peak Telkom calls and mobile calls.
 
It would be interesting to compare Fring with Yeigo, the SA version using a similar concept. Especially comments from users of both applications.
 
froot said:
Not at all. A friend called me from his Skype on his Nokia N95 and it cost him around 30-40c per minute. This is way cheaper than peak Telkom calls and mobile calls.
Click to expand...

cheaper yes, free no. false advertising. like uncapped adsl :sick:, or ADSL from R39 a month :sick:

Plus, this might work in the future, but right now, not enough people have compatible phones. Also, does the phone receiving the call, not also need to be running the same software?
 
The other person just need to be logged onto Skype, Google, MSN or a few others. If their app are voice compatible (gTalk rather than just GMail) then one can chat for free. Otherwise, use SkypeOut credits to phone their landline / cell phone number at Skypeout rates.
 
Oupoot said:
It would be interesting to compare Fring with Yeigo, the SA version using a similar concept. Especially comments from users of both applications.
Click to expand...

Having a look. For me Fring is great because I already use Skype alot on PC and always have airtime for out calls.
 
last i have seen it last year sometime they where small and didn't support my phone.it does now. doesn't work to bad, heavily dependent on signal strength
 
fring uses about 8 Megs (up and down) of data for a 1 hour call. At R2.50 per Meg its about R20 for a 1 hour call to anybody else with fring, local or international! pretty cheap i think.

If you have a wifi enabled phone and wireless at home, work etc it can work out to less then 60c per call for an hours talk time - a bargin.
 
I've used Fring for a while now, as long as I've got 3G coverage it seems to work well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X