If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

OneFone, a mobile VoIP service provided by WifiMobile, is the latest service I’ve tried on my Nokia N95. Thanks to John O’Prey from WifiMobile, I had OneFone installed on my phone easily and had the opportunity to make a couple of tests.

First of all, I asked John a few questions. Here are his responses, that tell you more about their service:

Luca: Is OneFone “pure” VoIP ?
John: WiFiMobile to WiFiMobile is “pure” VoIP with tremendous quality. WiFiMobile to PSTN is obviously VoIP to landline.

I’ve tried it both using the 3G network and Wifi. With 3G, quality wasn’t that good, but acceptable. I don’t recommend this, unless you have a flat data plan. Much better under Wifi coverage, instead.

Luca: Are IM and presence available ?
John: M is not supported but Presence is and works in real time. This is something that you should definitely test.

I’ve tested it and it works well. You just have to add your contact’s details in your phone’s address book, including your friend SIP URI in the format: MOBILEPHONENUMBER@wifimobile.com

This way you will see your contacts’ presence information on your OneFone’s buddy list.

VoIP to VoIP calls are free, of course.

Luca: is it a Symbian or a J2ME client ?
John: Symbian.

Luca: Is it SIP based ?
John: It’s SIP based.

Luca: Pros against Fring ?
John: Both oneFone and Fring are stand alone 3rd party clients. WiFiMobile concentrate on voice telephony. Fring is very much consumer orientated however oneFone has corporate capabilities. For instance our client converts Nokia E and N series phones to pure extensions of a corporate IP PBX system. This enables employess to directly call other extensions and to accept a call from the switchboard anywhere on their mobile phone.

If you use OneFone, you can check that what John is saying here is true. OneFone is a Mobile Telephony over IP service, not really an IM mobile client like Fring. Anyway, both are “pure VoIP” services, that means that they use the data network to make/receive VoIP calls.

In addition, if you don’t want to struggle looking for a Wifi network and you don’t have a flat data plan, WifiMobile offers a local rate dial-thorugh phone numbers to US and UK residents that you can call in order to use their service. This is a good choice to make international calls just paying a local rate to your mobile operator. More dial-in numbers in other countries should be available pretty soon.

Luca: Weak points ?
John: I suppose our weakness is not our VoIP client but the fact that we charge for our service. The likes of Truphone give away all these free calls but rely on incoming call termination revenues on their numbers. To balance this we have just introduced a service for US and UK customers where they are able to make an international call at local rates over normal GSM. WiFiMobile pick up the international leg charges. This addresses the fact that people cannot always be in range of Wi-Fi or be fortunate enough to have an unlimited data plan.

I don’t really think that this is a weak point. They offer you a service that lets you call to most countries’ landline or mobile without any variable cost (unless you don’t have a flat data plan from your network operator) for just $15.99 / month.

Luca: Are rates REALLY cheaper than those offered by a mobile operator ?
John: It is most certainly cheaper than Network Operators particularly whilst roaming. I know what the Uk operators charge for international calls and i am sure that Italy is much the same.

What I liked more of this service is that it is really easy to use. You just need to open their application (that can be forced to open automatically as soon as you turn on your mobile phone) and wait for being online (you see their logo becoming green).

At this point, you can minimize it and use your phone as usual, dialing numbers and pressing the green button to make calls. OneFone will take care of the call for you and forward it to the WifiMobile’s network. Simply great.

I’ll go on making more tests, but my overall opinion is a THUMB UP for OneFone. They only have to take really care of the quality, since it must be really superb in order to convince people to use it instead of their operator, since they make pay for this service.

luca filigheddu, onefone, wifimobile