App for voice over Wi-Fi coming to iPhone
After all the hubbub about Wi-Fi service for the iPhone, part of the problem will soon be solved. DeFi Mobile is releasing a voice over Wi-Fi application in the Apple App Store as early as next month.
The producer of the app, DeFi Mobile, has experience in using Wi-Fi to get around extremely high charges for voice and data usage fees and roaming charges. It does so with a unified worldwide Wi-Fi service, which is available for a flat monthly fee. The service was first made available for Symbian-based handsets in the fall of last year. The application should let consumers avoid the risk of unpredictable and often very expensive cellular usage and roaming charges for international travelers.
The application will use a sprawling Wi-Fi infrastructure comprised of the majority of Wi-Fi hot spots around the world to provide service. The network of hotspots will be knit together by DeFi’s own carrier-grade backhaul network. This DeFi network will in turn connect peer-to-peer with 200 of the world’s major landline WAN service providers. DeFi CEO Jeff Rice says that the aggregate system will allow access to 2000 provider networks, as reported by Networkworld.
The service will work on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. It will be available as soon as early February. As an incentive, iPhone or iTouch users who download the De-Fi app from the Apple App Store will get 101 free minutes of service. After the free minutes have been used, iPhone and Touch users can continue on the service for free with users of DeFi and other non-TDM voice services such as DeFi, Skype and GoogleTalk. For broader coverage, they can easily upgrade to the DeFi Global Access service for $40 or $50 per month, according to Rice.
The $40 monthly fee gives the subscriber global coverage to all DeFi network locations without having to log in to each local hotspot as it is encountered. For an additional $10, subscribers can also have up to three telephone numbers in different countries. The multiple phone numbers allow the customer to bypass long distance fees by making a number local to one country ring in another country.
Apple is apparently completely behind this new Vo-Fi system. Rice was quoted as saying, “Apple has been nothing but very supportive and we haven’t heard anything negative from AT&T.” The system sounds like an ideal solution to a number of problems. It will be interesting to see how the reception is to the service, and to track user satisfaction with it.
Related Posts:
January 29th, 2009
Thank you. Good useful info. re. new DeFi Mobile service for iPhone.
January 29th, 2009
Glad we could help!
March 11th, 2009
For a comprehensive survey of who is offering mobile VoIP on the iPhone have a look at http://www.lowcostmob.com which has a table of what is currently available.
June 28th, 2009
Why haven’t they launched the service yet? Any updates since this article was published in january?