By James Wanless
President & COO of Talkster

With all the news around operator support or non-support of voice over Wi-Fi, Talkster has had quite a few questions about what Voice over Wi-Fi means to our customers. Market research firm Gartner issued a prediction this month that by 2019 more than 50 percent of mobile voice traffic will travel over VoIP links from end-to-end. Does this prediction match the hype? 2019 is 10 years away!

Here is our take. Wi-Fi technologies are available today on a number of phones, most notably Windows Mobile, Symbian S60 and the iPhone. Each of these device platforms has built-in technologies making VoIP calling possible. Depending on the availability of a suitable Wi-Fi network, they can be used to connect to a VoIP server to place calls to regular phone numbers, whether they be mobile or landline, VoIP or PSTN.

The Talkster solution, while using VoIP for backhaul – that part of the network that carries the signal from one destination to another (the same as most carriers do today, by the way) – uses the standard cellular voice channel to connect to our VoIP gateway as today we consider that VoIP functionality on the handset is subject to a number of serious limitations:

• Carrier restrictions: Most carriers restrict through policy or pricing the use of VoIP over their 3G networks. Some, like 3 for example, even though they talk about VoIP calling, are in fact using the same method that Talkster is, namely, using the standard voice channel for call routing.
• Ubiquity: Every phone has access to the voice channel, without exception. Talkster has a 3-tier solution to ensure that we can serve any customer. The Talkster solution offers dedicated local number dialing for international calls, a WAP application for calls and texts, plus the talki java application for full local address book integration along with real time messaging plus low cost calls and text messaging to anywhere.
• Battery life: Phones are optimized for using the standard codecs and voice channels of the GSM device. Using the data channel for voice is extremely draining on the battery and can cut the talk time down to 25% of the usual battery life used for standard calls.
• Complexity: The complexity of setting up a VoIP calling solution on the device and knowing when and when not to use it is too complicated for the average customer looking for cut-rate communications.

Talkster believes in Wi-Fi and broadband for calling, but we see the need for technology to catch-up before it becomes a mass market solution. Once it does, the foundation of Talkster and the talki solution are ready for it as the server side technologies are 100% compatible and don’t have to be changed in any way. Will it take 10-years? We don’t think so. But only time will tell.

Vodafone announced this week its “Passport Summer Roaming Promotion” which will run from June 1st through the end of August. With this promotion, Vodafone callers can take their home price plan on holiday with them to 35 European countries – plus Australia and New Zealand. While there’s normally a 75p connection charge to make and receive calls when roaming, with this promotion that fee has been eliminated and the calls will be charged at the same rate as local calls back home. If callers have inclusive minutes, the cost of the call is taken from these.

This is great news for UK Talkster callers planning to gallivant around Europe this summer on holiday. We’ve never billed ourselves as a roaming product, however with this plan Talkster callers can use their Talkster numbers as they usually would when calling from home.

So for example, if you go to Spain on holiday and want to call you brother in Germany you will be able to use your Talkster numbers just as you would normally do from home. Combining Talkster with Vodafone Passport transforms a very expensive calling scenario – an international call made whilst roaming – into a call that costs only what a local call would when you’re at home! You can call anywhere in the world using your Talkster numbers in the same way as you do while you are at home. talki users can also dial their local gateway number, to make calls anywhere in the world using their talki prepaid account.

There has been some speculation across the industry that this Vodafone promotion will pressure competitors to do away with roaming surcharges as well and could even usher in new EU legislation limiting the charges that Euro mobile operators could bill customers for utilizing one another’s networks. We shall see!

Cool enough to get us named as her Cool Site of the Day

FreeRinger, a free calling service built on the Talkster platform, was honored this week by none other than “America’s Digital Goddess,” Kim Komando herself!

Kim named FreeRinger her Cool Site of the Day. Thanks Kim, for the plug, and for sending all your readers and listeners our way to save money on their long distance and international calls.

Beyond what Kim detailed in her short review, Talkster has two other services that people looking to save a buck on international calls should know about. While FreeRinger is designed for people to place calls through their Web browser, these other Talkster built services can be used from any kind of phone.

Talkster’s Free World Dialing: The FreeRinger service is based on Talkster’s FreeWorldDialing service, which essentially turns your long distance and international phone calls into local calls. The neat thing about Free World Dialing is that you can use it from any type of phone to call any other phone (Landline, Mobile, VoIP phone, etc.). Click here to get started using Talkster’s Free World Dialing today: www.Talkster.com.

talki: The talki mobile app (currently available in Europe and Canada) delivers super cheap text and picture messaging and international calling anywhere in the world. With a built in credit and payment system, talki is not limited to the countries supported by Talkster’s Free World Dialing, giving you a highly affordable way to call or message with friends and family anywhere in the world. Visit www.talki.me to start using talki today.