Truphone rocks

02007-05-21 | Computer, Internet, Technology | 6 comments

Welcome to Truphone – Internet telephony on Nokia mobile phones
I called my dad in Austria this morning. We have been using Skype to talk, but both agreed that the sound-quality of this call (from my N95 via Wi-Fi to Truphone to his landline) was the best ever. Then I discovered that calls via Truphone to any landline in 40 countries are free until the end of June. Excellent!

6 Comments

  1. Dave

    That’s pretty amazing. I imagine handset VOIP is scaring the hell out of the mobile carriers, especially in the US and Canada where voice, as opposed to sms and data, is the mainstay of their business.

    That N95 looks pretty amazing, too. Did you pick it up in Europe? I imagine when US carriers start offering it, they’ll likely cripple the wifi capabilities like they did on the E61. Though, perhaps the iPhone will start a trend of less crippled US phones as the other (non-AT&T/Rogers) carriers try to compete.

    Reply
  2. Anna

    Dave, some carriers in Australia are already offerning N95. I had a play with it. Nice phones 5megapixel cam look good.

    The carrier told me that it’s 200% better then any other Nokia model on the market.

    Reply
  3. ottmar

    Dave – I bought an unlocked N95 here in the States. Expensive, but at present no US carrier sells it and I didn’t want a crippled phone in any case. On the other hand T-Mobile is making an interesting move regarding VOIP. They are rolling out a service where they offer VOIP as part of the cellphone package. These phones will switch from cell to Wi-Fi and back automatically. That should be very handy for people with bad cell reception, who have Wi-Fi. IMHO the iPhone is crippled because it will only work with AT+T. That is not what I look for in a GSM phone. I want a phone I can shove a local SIM into when I am in a foreign country for several weeks. I also doubt the iPhone will do VOIP – we’ll see.

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  4. Alex

    I have been using truphone for several monhts and it has replaced both Skype and my landline phone. The pricing and quality is very compelling.

    Reply
  5. Dave

    Ottmar – T-Mobile seems to be the most “innovative” of the big US carriers. I’ve thought about switching to them for years, but I still have AT&T service from when I worked for them and it was free. I can’t imagine having gone AT&T otherwise.

    I hadn’t heard that the iPhone won’t let you swap out SIMs. That seems like pretty basic GSM functionality common that one takes for granted. I’ll be shocked if AT&T actually manages to keep it locked to their network.

    My biggest gripe is that it won’t run 3rd party software. My very basic Sony-Ericsson handsets have run Java applications for years and years.

    I’m curious to see the iPhone. On paper, the feature set is pretty lackluster, but I’m very curious to play with the UI. On paper, the iPod is pretty lackluster, too. Yet, I’d take an iPod over any other MP3 player I’ve used.

    I guess time will tell on the iPhone.

    I’ll definitely have to check out the N95 when I can get my hands on one. Right now the price is a lot more than I can justify based on my lifestyle, but it’s a good indicator of what basic handsets will do in a few years.

    Reply
  6. ottmar

    Dave – the iPhone has no swappable SIM and is tied to AT+T until 2012. Yikes!! That’s a cellphone eternity…

    Reply

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