If you’re the proud possessor of a Wi-Fi-capable smartphone based on the Nokia S60 operating system platform (primarily the Nseries models), you’re in luck.
Santa Monica, Calif.-based WiFiMobile has just launched a new voice over IP service that will let you talk for free to fellow members—anywhere in the world—whenever you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network. Free calls can be made to SIP devices as well, worldwide, again with the proviso that they are logged into a Wi-Fi access point.
To get going with WiFiMobile, just sashay on over to their website, log in with your mobile number, and download the oneFone software. An SMS message from the company to your phone will give you the necessary activation code.
WiFiMobile believes it has, to all intents and purposes, eliminated the complexity of configuring this SIP-based application. You just enter your mobile number; the text in the SMS handles all the rest.
“Thanks to WiFiMobile, gone are the days of having to configure complicated SIP settings. Just go on our web site enter your details and your mobile will have VOIP service . . . at the touch of a button,” said WiFiMobile founder and CEO, Gerry O’Prey in a press release.
So, what if you’re not within range of a Wi-Fi hotspot? WiFiMobile’s application also handles GSM-based VoIP calls over your existing data plan—sidestepping the cost of bundled voice minutes.
Then, there’s the (probably common) case of needing to call parties who are not WiFiMobile members—or phones that are not Wi-Fi-connected. Like Skype and its work-alikes, this service lets you call landlines and other PSTN-based numbers “at heavily discounted cost.”
(Note: No service-plan pricing information was available on the website at the time of this writing, and VoIPplanet.com was unsuccessful in contacting the company for comment.)
Intriguingly, WiFiMobile also functions in the context of the corporate IP PBX, allowing and S60-based device to function as an extension. This feature, similarly provisioned by WiFiMobile via SMS, would allow companies to integrate mobile phone service at greatly reduced—and controllable—cost.
