Gary Eckstein

It’s interesting that we continue to refer to Mobile (or Cell) Phones even although their use has clearly evolved from a ‘device that transmits and receives sound, most commonly the human voice‘.  Mobile Phones and how their use has changed over the years is a great example of the Product Development strategy as proposed by Igor Ansoff in the 1957 Harvard Business Review article ‘Strategies for Diversification’ (MBA students take note!). Nokia is the biggest digital camera maker as cameras are attached to most of their phones. What would have happened if Canon or Nikon had decided to include phones on their cameras?

Anyway here are some interesting pieces of information relating to the changed role of the mobile phone:

• ‘When is a phone not a phone? In the hands of children and tweens, today’s cell phones are primarily used as text messaging devices, cameras, gaming consoles, video viewers, MP3 players, and incidentally, as mobile phones via the speaker capability so their friends can chime in on the call.’ via A Pocket Guide to Social Media and Kids | Nielsen Wire.
• ‘According to Lyra Research, an international market research firm, camera phone shipments will exceed one billion units per year in 2011. And, they also state that by late 2008 or early 2009, the cumulative number of camera phones shipped will surpass the cumulative number of both conventional and digital cameras shipped in the entire history of photography — and camera phones have been on the market for less than a decade. In 2007 Nokia sold almost 200 million camera phones.’ via Camera Phones – First phone, first camera
• ‘Texting re-creates the brief, frequent, spontaneous ‘connections’ with members of our social network that characterised the small communities of pre-industrial times. Texting re-creates the brief, frequent, spontaneous ‘connections’ with members of our social network that characterised the small communities of pre-industrial times. via Evolution, Alienation and Gossip: The role of mobile telecommunications in the 21st century

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Fring is awesome. Skype is splendid. The mix of the two is a match made in heaven. So why this article?

Well, there seems to be a lot of confusion as to what it costs to make calls with Fring. This post therefore attempts to make it more clear as to what costs are incurred with making calls with Fring via Skype.

First some background:

Fring is a voice over IP (VOIP) service used on mobile phones. All that is required is to signup with Fring and install free software on your mobile phone. Fring is compatible with most mobile/cell and smartphones including Apple iPhone, most Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, LG phones and other phones (unfortunately Fring cannot be used on Blackberry). Once installed it is possible to make calls to all countries and types of phones (i.e. landline/PSTN, Mobile and VOIP) as well as interact in other ways with social networks; as stated on the Fring website (highlights added by me):

‘Using your handset’s internet connection, you can interact with friends on all your favourite social networks including Skype®, MSN Messenger®, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!™ and AIM®. You can listen to music with your Last.fm friends, check out what each other are up to on Facebook, receive alerts of new Google Mail™ and tailor make your very own fring by adding more cool experiences from fringAdd-ons™.’

Skype is basically a means of making calls via the Internet (i.e. VOIP). Hundreds of millions of people use Skype (including me) for good reason; it is very cost effective and the quality of calls is great (those with slow Internet connections may find that the quality of Skype calls suffers). Skype may be used on all sorts of Internet connected devices however is most typically installed on a computer from where calls are made. All that is needed to use Skype is to install the software and signup. Skype to Skype calls are free however calls to PSTN/landline and mobile telephones are charged (however at usually very favourable rates).

Assuming that you have set up Fring on your mobile phone and have configured it for Skype use then this is simplistically how Fring and Skype work together when a call is made from Fring on a mobile phone:

• Fring itself is free to install and use.
• Fring uses data bandwidth therefore there may be data costs billed from your mobile phone provider (depending on your data usage and mobile phone plan).
• There is no charge by Skype for Skype to Skype calls.
• There is a charge for Skype to landline or mobile phone calls.

Most other VOIP services available via Fring work in much the same way as does Skype.

Although there is a lot of confusion as to what it really does cost to use Fring, it is generally far less expensive to call via Fring with Skype than to call mobile and landline phones directly from a mobile phone. Fring is good, Skype is good and there is every reason to use these two fantastic services.

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