Truphone - VoIP for your Nokia mobile

Hi,

About two weeks ago, I read about Truphone in some Nokia/Symbian Forum on the internet.
Truphone is a small application which you install on your internet and then can call via your Wireless LAN or 3G (UMTS) over the internet instead of using your mobile providers rates.
The great thing is, that calls to landline numbers in about 40 European countries are for free until the 31th of December 2007 according to Truphones homepage. (if you sign up until the 30th of September) And it's true! I tested it. It works great! :-)
Let me write a little bit out this great program for your Symbian device.

The program you can download via your mobiles network connection WLAN, 3G or GPRS.
You are doing this by sending a SMS with the text "install" to the number +44 7624 000 000.
Then you receive an SMS with the link to download the program and to install it. At the same time you get one more SMS with your phone number and login data.
I found on YouTube a video who shows in detail how this whole process is working. Quite easy! Just click on the link and watch.
The installation and first registration was quite easy. No problem for me.

The program itself, can connect via WLAN or 3G to the truphone server in UK. Also the program has a lot if configurations which can be set. For example is it offering to send SMS via the truephone server instead of your GSM prover. You can adjust to use while sending an SMS or predefine one default. I used my GMS provider.
See here some pictures of the adjustment possibilities in the program.

As you see in the second picture, as connection point you can also select your 3G network. Due to the fact that I don't have a data flatrate, I was not testing the program on my 3G network. Only via WLAN. But accoring to Truphones homepage the 3G network is supported as well. So if you are having a 3G contract which includes a data flat-rate you can use truephone where ever you can call with your phone. :-)

I have adjusted the Truephone on "autostart" which means it automatically starts when the defined WLAN network is available. I must say, it works great! As soon as I'm at home, the VoIP sign and the WLAN sign in my N95 is showing on the display.

Now about the calls.
If you are calling, then you go into your contact lists... I was using the "landline-numbers" of my friends in Germany and Sweden and then I just select "InternetCall" instead of normal "VoiceCall".
That's all. Just press the "ok" button and the phone starts to call your contact via the Truephone application installed on your mobile. And you can call for free on many landlines in Europe.

The data transfer during a VoIP call with Truphone is about 3,7 kB/s out and in. (Total about 7,4 kB/s).
One day called a friend for about one hour. The total data transferd during this 1 hour call was about 25 MB.

Screenshot34

So I really recommend that you only are using the Truphone at home on your WLAN if you don't have a data flatrate on your 3G contract.

One last comment about the call quality.
Well acutally there is no comment about it, because I couldn't hear any different compared with normal voice calls. Also my friends who I called didn't realized that I called them over the internet. So the voice quality is really impressive!
Install the program and give it a try! Maybe with Truphone it will also be after the 31th of December 2007 free to call landline numbers in 40 countries.
I read in on there homepage that they had this "free call" offer first until the 30th of June this year, but they finally keppt it now until the 31th of December. So lets see what the future will bring.
But the program itself is great! I just love it! It works perfectly and it gives me free landline calls to all of my friends in Germany and Sweden.

Enjoy the world of Truphone!

Regards
Geraner

Comments

[snoyt]

[this is good] Nice review. I run a different SIP provider on the N95 so I have a real local landline number to be called in on. Costs are about 2 cent per minute for most countries of the Western civilization ;-) I have set searching for the wireless lan to every 10 minutes. This reduces powerconsumption because of wifi-scanning sufficient that I can't see a bar dropping during a full day if the phone is not used for other activities. Note that if you are calling international numbers over 3G it is most likely cheaper than calling throught the cellphone company's link  ;-)

I had some trouble with SIP, including Truphone,  through my firewall but configuring Fring for Truphone solved it . Fring can tunnel through most firewalls.
And once Fring connected, I could switch to the N95's SIP.

Fring tends to close during heavy memory usage and SIP does not. It keeps on going as it should. Since I run 80/90% of the time a SIP connection to my provider I noticed my phone needs a reboot or restart once a day.Sometimes it does it on its own. How is yours? Any problems?

[Geraner]

No I don't have any connection problems with Truphone. Even not reboot or restart once a day or so. It is just working.
What I have seen is that the N95 is getting very hot while talking via Truphone. (Don't know whether it's the same problem with normal voice calls.)
So I'm anyway using the headset connected to my N95 when calling with Truphone. At the end of an 30 minutes call, the battery is really HOT!
I tried to configure the German SIP provide GMX to get it running with the inbuild SIP client on the N95, without sucess.But I don't care longer because I found Truphone and it just works. And the best I even can call for free! :-)

[snoyt]

People can call me on my phone for local costs. Even when I am abroad and are connected to the provider via wifi or 3G. And Fring still supports Skype out to dial out. Besides you can actually configure multiple SIP providers on you phone, but you can not connect to both SIP providers for incoming calls at the same time I think.

[Aiken]

I am happy to have Truphone!!
At least I don't need to use password for my IDD :)
I had auto reboot problem(when someone call my Truphone  Number).
I solve it by hard reset (Truphone give me solution after I hard reset...my mobile phone.., you know...I cannot wait for it ..I need to use Truphone haa)

[snoyt]

[this is good] Seems your Nokia is more stable than mine. The scandanavian productcodes probabely get better beta-tested. Darn those finnish developers, I guess they spent more time with their phones than playing icehockey ;-) 

[jabalajappa]

can i use the VOIP For my unlocked Nokia N 95 8gb model.