Vonage offers free 3G calls for iPhone, Droid Facebookers

Vonage, the respectable face of VoIP, has launched a mobile client allowing iPhone and Android users to make VoIP calls for free, as long as they’re calling a Facebook friend. The application, which is appearing now on iTunes and the Android Marketplace, lists those Facebook contacts who also have the application installed ( …

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait a moment

What was that i heard ???

Was that Jobs head exploding with rage !!!

Mwaahaaahaaa

AC cause i dont care to be flamed today

[Gene Poole]

Ha!

So how many of us actually get a strong, stable 3G connection that will support VOIP calls?

[nobby]

i can get really good 3g reception

I only know of two 3g blackspots, one is my home and the other is my work.

:(

[Anonymous Coward]

Me

Do you drive a combine harvester to work in your potato field farmer giles? Us youngens down in that thar big posh town have more than one mast between 500 sheep and a couple of cows so they've upgraded us to technology from this century....

I already drive around streaming spotify without issues...until I go out to the countryside that is.

[Mike Cardwell]

VOIP != Streaming Music

"I already drive around streaming spotify without issues...until I go out to the countryside that is."

Streaming music over 3G bares no resemblance to VOIP over 3G. If you're streaming music, latency isn't an issue because it can buffer the content. You can't buffer VOIP though, even a small amount of latency would cause gaps in the conversation. You need a constant, stable, low latency connection in order to have a reasonable quality conversation and 3G simply doesn't provide that in practice.

VOIP over 3G works, but it sucks badly. I don't know why anyone would choose to use it. In fact, I doubt anybody does. Does anyone here do it? Has anyone here tried it and then gave up because of how shit it is?

[m0th]

VOIP on 3G

I use it a lot - 3CX on a Nexus One. Works great most of the time. But when it sucks, it really sucks.

[isurrenderall]

Dang!

Has to be after I've deleted my Facebook account!

[Anonymous Coward]

Free?

Is this "free" as in "uses data allowance" for those not on an unlimited contract?

[Mike Cardwell]

Re: Free?

> Is this "free" as in "uses data allowance" for those not on an unlimited contract?

I would assume so. I'm on T-Mobile UK PAYG and with their £20/six months Internet booster I get "unlimited" (1GB) of bandwidth each month for £3.33, which is practically free.

[Skrrp]

T-Mobile

Check your terms of service. T-Mobile bans VoIP on my £15/mo data contract, you have to pay £30/mo to get it. They still haven't been able to tell me why.

[Mike Cardwell]

Re: T-Mobile

Is that enforced? Ie, do they block ports/ips to prevent you from doing it?

[b166er]

Eh?

'which need that by-the-minute voice revenue'

Have to disagree with that. My mobile bill is exactly the same every month, so in effect, I'm just paying to send 1s and 0s back and forth. They don't make anything out of by-the-minute calls that they wouldn't be getting anyway.

[Ku...]

A typical user...

A typical mobile phone user is not using a data tarrif, is not sending data. Most users use their mobile for talking and texting which is why most packages are all about one or the other or both. Those of us using data a lot or even only a bit are still a minority of the mobile phone users.

by-the-minute talk time is still the meat & two veg of most mobile operators.

It will change, slowly.

[joshimitsu]

too much overheads?

Why does VOIP over these devices need so much bandwidth when 64kbps should be enough to carry speech?

[Harthin]

Bandwidth isn't always the issue

Latency is a bigger issue most of the time than bandwidth.