Freeware World

It’s taken a while, but mobile operators have finally given up trying to fight against VoIP services. That’s the assessment from Tobias Kemper, Vice President at mobile VoIP heavyweight, Nimbuzz. Speaking to OnSoftware following the launch of the service’s new NimbuzzOut feature he said: “operators have stopped seeing us as enemies, but rather as a value add for their services and networks.”

NimbuzzOut allows users to make dirt cheap international mobile phone calls over the Internet via Nimbuzz. Rates are as low as 0.02 cents for calling the UK and China. Traditionally, these kind of services have struck fear into mobile operators worried about losing call revenue to cheap and free VoIP alternatives.

Several operators, including T-Mobile and AT&T have previously banned VoIP services, such as Nimbuzz, Skype and Google Voice from using the company’s network. Following widespread criticism these bans have since been overturned, and Kemper now believes the future’s looking bright for mobile VoIP and social media messaging.

Operators understand that the future is in VoIP for reasons of quality assurance and scalability. Nimbuzz is a brilliant data magnet that increases loyalty and customer churn for the operator. Operators have been more and more receptive toward us over the recent months and we will have some more interesting announcements coming up, beyond the roll outs with O2 in Germany and Eutelia in Italy. Operators have never been successful in banning third party services and evolution. T-Mobile tried and lost in court. T-Mobile USA has now seen its data traffic increase by factor 10 in the last quarter, only because of social media messaging.

NimbuzzOut has been already been rolled out for iPhone and Symbian devices, with the remaining platforms to be supported in the very near future. Notably, the developer has chosen to retain SkypeOut functionality within Nimbuzz, though it’s clear it will be encouraging users to switch over to NimbuzzOut. “It’s the choice our users. We have a very diplomatic solution and the user decides what’s best for them. NimbuzzOut is a great addition for everyone who is new to the VoIP game or looking for a cheap international calling solution,” said Kemper.

Kemper said that Nimbuzz will now focus its attentions to location-based feature to make the program even more useful. There’s plenty of competition in the mobile VoIP and social media market and Nimbuzz must continue to evolve if it wants to compete with the likes of Skype, Fring and Google Voice. In fact, they go head to head for the Best Social Network App award at the Crunchies in January, which you can vote on here.

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