Vopium - VOIP service available on many mobiles Thursday, September 25, 2008

I was interested to learn about Vopium, which is a Danish startup that offers users a simple way to access cheap international telephony without changing their operator or sim card.

By using Vopium, people calling internationally can save up to 90% on talk time and texting.

Vopium provide a piece of software that installs on your phone and which will dynamically redirect calls through their gateways, thus giving you a cheaper rate. Very similar to what Truphone Anywhere does, when WiFi and 3G aren’t available.

They claim the software is compatible with almost 500 new mobile handsets that support various operating systems such as Symbian, Windows Mobile, Java and Blackberry. I installed it quickly and easily onto my Blackberry and found it integrated well with my contacts directory.

The software will try to route calls over wifi in the first instance, and in its' absence calls local gateway numbers with onward routing over the internet, so that you pay for a local call to your own operator and a reduce international tariff to Vopium. Oddly they don't make reference to using a GPRS or 3G connection.

I really like the idea that the application automatically intervenes when it detects an international call and provides a cheaper routing. Many company telephone networks perform low-cost routing in a similar manner and having this on your mobile is excellent. Whilst you could just switch to the application, it is something else you don't need to think about.

The service also offers a "Call me" service which allows you to call between two numbers cheaply, but which seemingly has to be accessed via their website. The cost applicable is best explained here.

However, where I think Vopium screws up is not the pricing but

a) the minimum balance to fund your account is GBP50, which is staggeringly large deposit for a service only charging a few pence per minute to many countries. This would deter me from using the service, since my experience with VOIP is that even GBP20 goes a long way. Of course, if you prefer to use your mobile for international dialling regularly rather than say a PC based VOIP client, it may appeal to you.

b) based on their "checkout" procedure and Help notes, they appear to operate separate account balances per product rather than a single overall account balance. Hence, if you wish to use several services, and if my understanding is correct, then you will need to fund each separately rather than having a single balance to draw against. If I'm wrong, then maybe they should look at clarifying their checkout process.

Still, you can try their service free with 30 free minutes + 100 SMS text messages without obligation.

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posted by John Wilson @ 5:03 PM Permanent Link newsvine reddit



5 Comments:

At 9:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i have used nearly all Mobile voip apss in the market. the fact that these voip providers are a serious threat to worldwide operator revenues is amazing although they are not taking this threat seriously BUT they would very soon. great to see the BIG vc´s are backing up on this investing in these apps.

btw. i topped up 10 GBP using vopium so it is possible for me at least :-)

 
At 10:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree and Vopium is an awesome service and a great price. Had to use their helpdesk and was very pleased.. not the usual ebay, skype type of service where you can go take a ***** in the forest and come back in two days hoping for an answer :) I checked out their shares on the EuroNext and I am thinking of buying some shares from these guys!

 
At 11:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, they rock. Saves me lots of money and I also will have a closer look at them and buy some shares as now is the time to invest I guess.

 
At 9:41 PM, Blogger Rene Lauritsen said...

Yes looks like the financial crisis also got the shares of vopium down. Might be interesting buying up now. Voip is the future.

 
At 9:41 PM, Blogger Rene Lauritsen said...

Yes looks like the financial crisis also got the shares of vopium down. Might be interesting buying up now. Voip is the future.

 

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