Entries tagged “voip”

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Skype for mobile phones

Check out Fring, a Skype and Google Talk client for mobile phones. Fring does not require a PC; it runs completely on the phone, and works anywhere there is connectivity.

While the site claims a 3G network is required, it works great on my EDGE connection with Airtel. Installation was painless and usage is straightforward. Open Fring, login if offline, select your contact, and call. That’s it. There was a lag of about a second in the call I made for testing, thereby reducing conversation from dialogue to sequences of monologues, but this is still pretty incredible.

Fring can connect on startup and set your phone up for receiving both regular and VoIP calls (and does so by default), but this isn’t recommended if you care for more than a few hours of battery life. The company says they’re working to fix it.

With the recent announcement of Gizmo Project for LJ Talk, the first new IM network in recent years that I was actually delighted to sign up for, we seem to have passed a notable milestone for VoIP.

Go check out Fringe and give me a call. I’m “jackerhack” on both Skype and Google Talk.

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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Skype to be banned too?

BlogSpot isn’t the only one to fall. According to this article in the Hindu BusinessLine, The ISP Association of India is urging DoT to ban Skype and related voice messengers:

In a letter to the DoT, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) said: "Internet telephony services can be offered in India either by an ISP specifically permitted to do so or by a unified access service licensee. However, several service providers such as Skype, Net2Phone, Yahoo, and MSN, are providing Internet telephony services to people in India. Most of these foreign service providers do offer termination in Indian fixed-line telephones as well."

The letter, sent on July 13, also said that these service providers do not possess the requisite licence as mandated by the Government of India, thus vitiating the level playing field for bona fide licensees, such as Indian ISPs.

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The Indian ISPs have pointed to a recent ban imposed on Skype by the South Korean Government for offering voice service without a licence.

The ISPs also said that the service could prove to be a threat to national security with no monitoring being done.

Here comes the “threat to national security” bogeyman again.

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