Packet8 is well-known as a VoIP provider to both the residential and SMB markets. They offer their customers a variety of calling plans, a fax service, a videophone service, and they’ve been voted the most popular hosted VoIP service by AMI Partners, who ranked Packet8’s Virtual Office service as the #1 hosted VoIP phone system choice by U.S.-based small and medium sized businesses, ahead of competitors including XO Communications (News - Alert), Covad, and others.
Perhaps one of the biggest gaps in their service offering was a mobility solution.
Well now that’s all changed. The company today announced the Packet8 MobileTalk international calling service for mobile phone users.
The service is available for users of mobile smartphones running the Windows, Palm or Symbian (News - Alert) operating systems. The service is also available for users of the ever popular Blackberry devices. Packet8 says that over 340 handset models are supported. A full list of supported phones is available on Packet8’s MobileTalk site.
When asked about the recent announcement from Google regarding their forthcoming mobile phone platform, Android (News - Alert), Packet8 CEO Bryan Martin told TMCnet that his company is excited by the prospects of another open operating system to integrate with.
“We think it’s great, because it’s yet another standard platform,” Martin said. “We applaud Google’s (News - Alert) efforts to introduce Android and our R&D team is already exploring that as well.”
One of the hallmarks of the MobileTalk solution is its simplicity. Users simply go to he Packet8 Web site to sign up, and a custom software app is created on-the-fly that’s downloaded to the user’s mobile phone over the air. If the user does not have a data plan, an e-mail is sent with the software as an attachment, which the user can then download to their handset by syncing with their PC as they would normally do to add other software.
Unlike other common solutions for dialing International numbers, such as calling cards, callback and other reduced-rate international mobile calling services, Packet8 MobileTalk does not require the user to dial numerous access numbers, followed by lengthy PINs in addition to their destination number. The service enables the simple dialing of a phone number directly from an address book, contact list, or speed dial that resides on the handset.
Once the number is dialed or selected from, say, a recently missed calls directory, the MobileTalk application identifies the international prefix being called and redirects the call to a local Packet8 network access number.
From there, Packet8 initiates the international call at a low per-minute rate.
Packet8’s Martin told TMCnet that it may take up to 15 seconds to connect the call due to the two-step process, but when compared to dialing lengthy strings of numbers or the risk posed when attempting to dial such a cumbersome combination of digits while driving, 15 seconds is a small price to pay.
Martin played up the high quality of the calls as well as the inexpensive pricing.
“We’re not coming to this as a startup,” he said. “We bring a robust existing network to help offer customers the best possible quality at a very low cost. For example, calls to many parts of Europe are two to three cents per minute. Calls to much of Asia can range from three cents.”
A chart showing pricing comparisons between Packet8 MobileTalk service and other international calling services is available here.
Martin also reiterated how easy it is to use the solution.
“You literally just dial your number, or select a contact from your contacts list or out of your callback log, and the Packet8 MobileTalk software will take care of placing that call on our network.”
Customers can sign up for a Packet8 MobileTalk account starting today at the company’s dedicated MobileTalk site.
Packet8 is positioning MobileTalk as a standalone solution, so customers do not need to have an existing Packet8 account to take advantage of the solution, however discounts apply to Packet8 VoIP or MobileTalk subscribers. A one-time $9.99 activation fee for the service and a monthly fee of $9.99 apply to non-Packet 8 (News - Alert) subscribers. Existing Packet8 VoIP subscribers, including subscribers with one Packet8 MobileTalk account, pay a monthly service fee of $4.99.
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