[3GScottishUser]

An application offering free internet phone calls has been launched. Called Yeigo, the service uses a mobile phone's internet connection to make free calls to other Yeigo users.

The application is free and customers do not need to sign a contract. Users can download the application onto their existing handset. They will need to have sufficient prepay credit or a pay-monthly contract to access the internet from their handset.

Yeigo chairman Ivan Ferrer said: 'Yeigo will fundamentally change the way mobile telephone is delivered to and used by consumers.'

Yeigo said the application has been named the 'Skype of mobile phones' by bloggers in South Africa, where the service originated.

Meanwhile, 3 and Skype launched a handset this week called the Skypephone, which also allows users to make free calls over the internet.

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/content/17185.asp

Get the details here: http://www.yeigo.com/

[Hands0n]

Interesting - moreso that it has originated out of Africa. But it truly has a very long way to go to catch up with Skype, let alone rival it.

My thoughts on this centre around interoperability. Regardless of the technicalities, Skype got there first and is the measure to be held up against. Very many "better" technologies will follow, and fail simply because of that.

A Global SIP standardised way of working, including Presence, is highly desirable. But there is no global concensus. Only competing and incompatible technologies exist today, largely driven by the Finance Director, no doubt. Had the Internet been constructed in such a manner it would not be the thing it is today. But the Internet was a unique altruistic (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=s2a&defl=en&q=define:altruistic&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title) happening unlikely to be repeated in the highly competitive VoIP world where all that can be seen are $s, £s and €s. This places us lightyears away from any liklihood of a global ubiquitous and interoperable standard.

That which does work is cumbersome and often very challenging to use, way beyond the capabilities of the average joe.

The closest I've seen to being a commercialised product is Truphone - but even that is not as simple to use as the 3 Skypephone. In that little device what 3 and Skype have done is to turn the function into an Appliance. Much like any other mobile phone the Skype function just works, and simply too.

Can this merging of technology be performed elsewhere than Skype? If it takes a £400+ handset to achieve it, then the answer has to be a resounding "No".

[3GScottishUser]

It seems to work with ANY Internet connectivity including GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA and Wi-Fi so any PAYG handset with Internet access will do the job.

I have not gone into too much depth reading up on this new development but it's compatible with AIM, MSN and Yahoo messenger as well apparently.

The big hurdle has to be the Internet access though as you would need a decent amount of network availbility to use this service and the only option I can think of is T-Mobile's Web'N'Walk, assuming the port this operates on is open.

Hopefully someone will download the Symbian client and give it a try.

[Hands0n]

I don't think that regular 3G bandwidth is going to be a problem for this VoIP client - what is much more likely to be an issue is the latency across 3G (significantly better across HSDPA).