Sunday, November 8. 2009VoIP Using Mobile HSPA......John Linton .....but this time thinking through how to deal with the slimiest 'competitors' before spending the money. We have been attempting to source/write a realistically configurable and easily usable 'universal' application to allow an end user to use VoIP over their mobile telephone via data rather than pay the mobile call costs - which, capped plans or not, are much higher than the 10 cent unlimited length call to any local or national number provided by VoIP. Even a 15 cent a minute call to mobile is much lower than the vast majority of mobile tariffs and of course a 5 cent to 8 cent SMS is much lower than 'standard' mobile rates. Then there are international calls at two or so cents a minute via VOIP versus the enormously high costs via mobile tariffs. So, clearly a compelling case to provide an application that will allow a mobile handset user to do this....but absolutely not in the mobile carrier's interests in allowing this to happen given the decade and a half practice of giving away handsets and recovering the cost via 24 month lock in contracts and sky high mobile rates. I have used Fring, Nimbuzz and our own beta versions of VoIP over HSPA for over a year now and have never had a problem that couldn't be solved by a re-dial. However my use of a mobile phone is pretty much restricted to making and receiving calls and I don't even keep an address book of 'most called' numbers as I figure that if I can't remember the number then there really is no point in calling the person concerned....and I realise I'm a one off weirdo mobile phone user so my experience, other than determining call clarity in different circumstances is irrelevant. Our other testers, both inside and outside the company, continued to have criticisms of the software we developed so we have never been able to make VoIP over HSPA a commercial 'product' up to now. As time has passed there are an increasing number of third party developers who have produced their versions of a 'full blown' MoIP application and, in despair of ever writing our own application we have selected one of those products to test and see if it does address all of the criticisms/lack of function that we have been unable to overcome. My testing this week indicates that it does even forcing me to implement some of the functions I personally would never use. It will take a further 6 - 8 weeks to actually turn the testing phase into a deliverable product but we have now decided to do that with the hope that we can deliver the product, a year late, in January 2010. Our liking of this concept is, ignoring my personal dislike of "capped plans", that we can sell a data service for mobile users that provides a mobile call service over HSPA at a fraction of any other mobile call plan they currently use. As we have no current commitment with any mobile carrier that involves us in selling mobile plans with "caps" or other "minimum" monthly usage restrictions we have far more 'freedom' than any of the current carriers or their wholesale channels. After our recent experiences with dealing with this problem in our first major marketing of HSPA this is more than a bonus - it's an absolute requirement. Doubtless I will make some major error of judgment in this replacement strategy as I did in the first one but I will take the sliminess of some competitors into account this time. I think the call costs, including 2 cents a minute calls to ten or so 'popular' countries from a mobile handset that has an application that installs in less than a minute once the HSPA service has been activated is a very attractive proposition for private users but it is 'blow you away' offer for business users combining the values of calls between employee mobiles are uncharged, calls from the employees mobiles to their office telephone numbers are uncharged and there are no minimum spends and no contracts......but if I go on I'll give too much away to the Exetel copyists. Suffice to say, as we push further into the corporate market the ability to integrate high speed Ethernet data, VoIP for general business telephone services, business mobile handset data and VoIP services and SMS from the data base and other sources. So I'm happy with the product I'm using and the other testers no longer criticise the lack of features and facilities that were shortcomings of our own developments so maybe Exetel can finally offer the very best and by far the lowest cost mobile service in Australia after over five years of trying. I see no reason, based on my usage to date, that Exetel's mobile offering in 2010 will be even more cost effective than our broadband offerings have always been. Maybe I've got more hard lessons to learn?
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Any thoughts of also providing a "cheap" 3G handset to go with it?
Harry. Comment (1)
We look at it every now and again but it really is not something a small company should do.
Comments (6)
I have wondered sometimes if VoiP is the reason why the data charges on mobile phones are so High in Australia? I mean even at 1c per KB it works out to $10/MB making the alternative usage of Fring, Skype mobile etc totally pointless.
I opted for a data bundle with my current provider which circumvents this ludicrous rate ... but still wonder how they can get away with asking $10,000 for a Gig's worth of data usage, but sell you the Gig in a "bundle" for $20 ? @JL: If you deliver a solid application to do VoHSPA I would switch as soon as my contract expires (possibly even before). All my friends and Family would be soon after. Comment (1)
It's one of the reasons.
At Exetel's charges the data cost of a one minute phone call is around 0.2 of a cent (plus the 10 cents for the VoIP call. So a five minute VoIP over HSPA call to a land line would cost a little over 11 cents. Comments (6)
Sound great... what platform will the VOIP application work on?
I have just started using Android with an Exetel HSPA/VOIP plan so would love to give this a try. Comment (1)
iPhone, Windows based i/fs and all Nokia data phones.
Comments (6)
I hope to see something on the iPhone now that AAPT are going to allow 3G Voip calls soon in USA. Why this decision should effect us in Australia is a mystery but that is Apple being the control freaks they are.
Comment (1)
We will do that - other applications from other suppliers also already do that.
Comments (6)
Great news on the MoIP app.
Would I be correct in guessing, that one of the new features you never needed would be DTMF for menus and voicemail? I would second the Android app as well, I'm currently debating between buying an iPhone now or waiting for the new high resolution Android phones due by January next year. Comment (1)
Here's hoping that the new application is not locked to a single platform ,symbian, as I believe the take up of other smart phones becomes more apparent.
Though I would take some convincing to move away from the (payed for) software, that I currently use, on my windows mobile. Comment (1)
Hi John,
I'll give you my experience, add it to your market research Maybe I'm in the minority, but MoIP experience hasn't been all great guns so far. I was on a Telstra NextG $40, 24 month plan inc. phone. My Telstra plan was $960 total over two years. I moved to the Exetel plan and bought an E-66 for $320, say $13.33 / mo over 24 months. The mobile calls I made in October on Exetel cost $13.52 + data, say $0.50. With the $5 monthly plan cost, that brings it up to $31. The same calls suprisingly would have totaled $39 on my old Telstra plan, so just within the $40 plan. A 25% saving. There is no doubt that it is cheaper. As long as you can buy a phone for $300 to do VoIP. The question for me, and for all MoIP consumers is does the saving outweigh the poorer quality of service? My experience hasn't been as rosy as yours. The first 5 seconds of a call is always 'hello, hello, are you there? hello' before the data packets are in sync and the conversation can become flowing. ' Maybe Perth's Optus HSPA coverage is crap compared to Sydney but there are plenty of places where it switches to a 2G signal, or the signal just disappears inside of behind buildings. But even when there is a great signal, calls can be uncomfortable, and as you've said you just need to disconnect and call back. At the moment it's hard to say the saving is worth the trouble Comments (2)
I have been using VoIP over HSPA for one month now and would like to agree with Clive, especially on two points.
1. The up front cost of a handset is a problem. (I spent $400 on an e71 that I took a gamble purchasing over the internet from an Aust dealer who imports from Hong Kong, just so I could save about $200). It took me over 6 months to work out how to get a phone this good for as cheap as I could possibly get. 2. The first 5 seconds of a call is frustrating (for both parties in the call). I would like to add that the fear of a call going through as a mobile call when the 3G signal has dropped out and you havn't noticed, and then seeing that your 'free or untimed' call has become the most expensive mobile call you have made, is an issue. Also as I count myself as a geek, propeller-head, or even a bleeding edge proponent of new technology, I am happy to put up with futzing around with the phone, spending a couple of minutes (at times) making sure that the SIP client is registered and the call will go through as VoIP, or redialling until the call goes through, BUT this is nowhere near ready for handing over to my wife or children who expect that a mobile phone will work first, time every time without all the fuss. In the meantime I continue to work out how I can make best use of my HSPA service, and look forward to testing the new client JL speaks of, in the new year. Comment (1)
Thanks for the input Lawrie, maybe we can continue this forum post http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=308&t=28482&start=105 to further discuss our issues.
There isn't anything we can do about the upfront cost, except hope that Exetel's VoIP software choice will mean we can buy cheaper S60 phones that don't have the native SIP client. One without GPS and all that junk so my family can buy the handsets just to make calls. With my E-66 and no doubt with your E-71 (they're practically the same hardware) in the settings of the phone you can change the 'make normal call if internet call fails' a question on the phone before it actually makes the call. I think by setting the 'default call type' in the Internet tel. app it will always ask 'can't make Internet call, would you like to make normal call instead?' I totally agree with you that there is no way I could hole-heartedly hand over my phone to my family and say 'it's just like a regular mobile but cheaper.' Comments (2)
I use Nimbuzz exclusively for my phone and whilst it's slightly bleeding edge, all in all I'm very happy with it. There's a second or two of delay at the start of a call that can be offputting, but it seems to smooth itself out quickly. I've taken my phone bill from $320 to $12/month, and I don't pay for call forwarding at all any more (another $50/month), so all in all I'm a very happy camper. Audio quality is a little bit scratchy on my E71, but it's no worse than many other mobiles I've had in the past.
Tried Fring and the latency was unworkable (although the app itself looked very nice) Comment (1)
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