Truphone triumph at VON

Truphone had its public beta launch at VON Boston on 12th September - i.e. this was the first time that members of the general public could download and use the Truphone software, although staffers had been using it for some time. There was a time on Monday 11th when I was not sure we were going to make it; significant bugs showed themselves in the re-vamped website and the latest version of our handset application was rejected in the Symbian-signed process.

Luckily it all came together by the end of the day thanks to a 4 a.m. start by the team in Boston liaising with the team in Europe. After that, we had a superb show. Despite having the smallest stand we were unquestionably the busiest, particularly on the last day. At times we had seven people manning the stand all talking to separate groups with a queue of other people trying to catch somebody's eye. We even did a brisk trade signing people up on the spot, despite the lack of availability of the Nokia E-series in the USA.

Our stand was enlivened by our very own 'Dilbert' - an actor who we hired to walk around chained to a PC and carrying the slogan "still talking to your PC? Truphone: Mobile VoIP has arrived!" (see the picture). We got a yellow card from Pulver Media for taking our promotion beyond the boundaries of our stand, but I think we amused a lot of the other exhibitors.

Since then we have been busy providing customer support for all our lovely new customers and fixing the bugs they have inevitably uncovered!

Pre-VON hysteria - photographic evidence

Just a couple of days to the Truphone beta launch at VON, Boston. Aaaarghhh!

The tension in the office was relieved a little this afternoon with the arrival of our exhibition materials in an amusingly shaped package.

You can see the pictures here

When will mobile VoIP go mainstream?

Mobile VOIP is exciting area and at the moment doubly so. The technology to make VoIP viable has been around for a while, but only recently has this percolated down to mobile phones accessible to mainstream consumers.

Nokia has released the E60, E61 and E70 already which include a native VOIP client based on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol – an open IETF standard upon which Truphone is based), and Wi-Fi network access. The E-Series phones are designated business phones but recently Nokia announced the Nokia N80 Internet Edition; one of the N-Series phones for mainstream consumers.

The N80 Internet Edition is claimed to make WiFi more easy to use with a wizard to help set up connections at home as well public access points. It also allows integration of third party VOIP clients on the handset and Nokia may even include a VOIP client of their own. Hopefully this handles NAT traversal.

Another exciting development from Nokia is their announcement to provide firmware revisions from PCs. This is great news for existing handset owners – no more trips to the Service Centre for re-flashing to get the latest fixes. Several N-Series handsets are supported including the N91 and hopefully more to follow. Wouldn’t it be nice if the improvements made for the N80 Internet Edition were made available to other N-Series phones? Either way, it seems mainstream mobile VOIP has arrived

How Truphone is different from Skype mobile

Skype is currently available for the Pocket PC, and it is a racing certainty that it will be available on Symbian smart phones sooner or later. The approach will undoubtedly be the same in both cases, namely that what you get is a cut-down version of the Skype PC application. This means that you either use your mobile phone as a Skype terminal, using the Skype application, or you use it as a regular mobile phone, using the built-in phone book.

Truphone's approach is quite different: our objective is to be almost invisible in everyday use. You just use your phone as normal, using all the same menus and contacts book as always. It's just that your calls are (often dramatically) cheaper a lot of the time when you are in reach of a Wi-Fi access point. You only have one phone number and one address book to worry about, and what is more your address book will synchronise with Outlook and others. Incoming calls or text messages will try you on the cellular network (normally for no extra charge) if you are not online by Wi-Fi.

So to summarise, Skype is like having two separate devices in one box whereas Truphone is like having a 'least cost routing' upgrade to your mobile phone. You pays your money (none, actually, but time is money, right?) and you takes your choice...

Talkin' about a mobile VoIP revolution

Mobile VoIP is a fledgling technology; there's a lot to learn and a lot to be said. None of us has all the answers, so we believe the best thing to do is talk about it. Best idea wins and all that.

Truphone are pleased to support the recently launched Mobile VoIP Forum. The aim is to provide a place for everyone to share their thoughts on industry news, the competing services on offer, hardware reviews and event news – or to just say hello to like-minded people.

Early posts include reference to a Guardian piece warning the mobile operators against high data charges in the era of mobile Wi-Fi access and a discussion on the best way to set up your home router for VoIP.

Visit the Mobile VoIP Forum.