The Mobile VoIP race in 2008 is on!

Mobile VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) has started to push its way into industry over the past few years. More and more companies are realizing the great potential this technology has. The first time people started to really see the light was when Herman conceived the idea of mobile instant messaging using VoIP in 2003. Shortly after his discovery MXit was born and has evolved into a major Instant Messaging player in South Africa.

Since MXit displayed the pure power of Mobile VoIP, a number of other companies have evolved and are racing to be the worlds number 1 mobile communicator. There are a number of other companies who have launched mobile messengers, such as eBuddy, MSN Mobile and Agile Mobile, all of which focus on mobile Instant Messaging. The ability to send text over the Internet instead of using the standard sms / text message option reduced people’s bills substantially and allowed them to communicate for hours on end for a fraction of a standard sms / text message.

This movement opened the eyes of many entrepreneurs and gave them the idea of transferring voice over the Internet and not only text. With this realization come the bitch of startups such as Fring, Yeigo, Truphone, Jajah and Migg33. There are several other competitors in the race, but these four are the leading names according to places such as Biz Community and other top technology news publishing houses.

Taking a look at what each company explains itself as yields the following results:

• Fring – fring™ is a mobile internet service & community that enables users to access & interact with their social networks on-the-go, make free calls and live chat with all your fring, Skype®, MSN® Messenger, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!™, AIM®* friends using your handset’s internet connection rather than costly cellular airtime minutes.
• Truphone – Truphone routes your mobile calls via the internet. That means free mobile calls to other Truphone users & very cheap calls to anyone else.
• Yeigo – Yeigo is a free software application for your mobile phone that lets you call and message anyone, anywhere. And, if you both have Yeigo, it’s free. It’s the end of paid-for mobile communication as you know it.
• Jajah – JAJAH is dedicated to bringing the world vastly improved telephony solutions at a fraction of the traditional price. We want to provide basic phone calls for free – and we truly believe it’s possible. We believe that by bringing together the best of the internet with the best of the traditional telephone industry we will be able to provide our customers with unique new solutions, solutions never before possible, at a price they’ll find irresistible.
• Mig33 – Mig33 is a global mobile community that lets you keep in touch with friends and family through a variety of online services, right on your mobile phone.

It is clear from these 5 descriptions above, that each company is entirely on the same path and this presents pure competition as its greatest! The ability to perform a voice call from any location in the world to any other location in the world using Mobile VoIP, allows users to call anyone at any time for just the cost of your countries data transfer rate. Think of it as Skype on your mobile basically. To find out what you pay for your data transfer rate, simply call your Mobile ISP (Internet Service Provider) and ask them. What I can tell you is, is that it will work out substantially cheaper than the traditional method of making a call, such as per minute billing.

I’ve often wondered to myself what would happen to Mobile Service Providers once such a technology is perfected? Will they resort to the same methods or are they hoping that the technology will not be perfected? I know that South African Mobile ISPs, such as MTN and Vodacom have started to bring out their own mobile messengers, but I’ve not seen software which can perform calls as of yet. From my own experience, using all 5 of the services mentioned above, I can honestly say that I’ve made some amazing calls and I’ve had a good number of failed attempts. The technology is getting there, but it’s not quite there yet. I’ve made successful calls from South Africa to the following places: California, Dublin, Notre Dam, France and New Zealand. I’ve made calls to friends and business calls and when these services are working, they work extremely well and cost a fraction of what I would pay if I were using per minute/second billing!

A number of people have predicted 2008 to be the year of mobile evolution, so I sit here waiting anxiously to see which of these companies is going to dominate or whether the already established providers are going to come out tops again!