Introducing our latest blogging editor to BandwidthBlog, uber Tech Geek, Johan du Toit
Great developments in the ICT market this year (2007) opened up great new opportunities to save some hard earned cash. Vodacom dropped data rates, by as much as 61%, while also expanding 3G networks. MTN followed. Smartphones took off in a big way and clever developers seized the opportunity to get compatible software to market.
Fring is such an application. This great piece of software is easy to use, while also being feature rich. Registration and software installation is quick and easy. Just visit http://www.fring.com. It is compatible with most smartphones. It enables you to make calls to your Skype®, MSN® Messenger, ICQ, Google Talkâ„¢, SIP and Twitter contacts. The best part is that it is all free. You only pay for your data, but at 10MB per hour it is hardly worth mentioning. The only obstacle to all voice communication to become totally free is that everyone has not installed it yet. It will happen. The drive is huge from the likes of Skype, Google, Fring and Yeigo to become the dominant player in the mobile VoIP arena.
I thought a comparison between Fring and Telkom would be of great interest to us South Africans, since our call and data rates are amongst the highest in the world. If you drop your landline and use this information, you could save good money. You also get to go totally mobile for good.
Just the fact that you have read this far, must mean that you probably already subscribe to some data deal. In my research I used the most expensive rate at R2.00/MB, so you should save even more. To simplify matters, only peak minutes was considered. This makes the table below relevant for small businesses. A thumb suck total, of 300 minutes per month, was divided into different call types. Voipcheap (http://www.voipcheap.com) has the lowest VoIP rates in the world. All calls to the USA are free! All UK landline calls is also free. In this example the saving was 46%. I say it is well worth it. Go for it.
The Chart:
Other South Africa alternatives – Yeigo