App offers cheap international calls on iPhone and BlackBerry
Although Apple turned down the Google Voice app, it appears the firm isn’t opposed to all attempts to avoid using AT&T’s services. It’s approved an app which allows cheap rate calls via the voice connection as well as over the internet.
The app is produced by Vonage, which already runs internet voice call services. As with other similar apps, notably Skype, the iPhone Vonage app allows users to make cheap rate calls while in range of a Wi-Fi signal. For anyone on an unlimited data plan, that means they only pay Vonage’s fees.
However, unlike other apps, the Vonage system means users can also make the calls over the AT&T voice network. They’ll pay standard local rates to AT&T and then a per-minute fee to Vonage. The firm gives the example of its fee for calls to Colombia which is 5 cents per minute, as opposed to as much as $3.19 a minute with AT&T.
The savings should usually, if not always, outweigh the added cost of the AT&T local rate call (which, of course, will be free of charge anyway with many voice plans.) Vonage is also planning to introduce a flat-rate plan for unlimited international calling.
Approval of such applications is bound to spark controversy given the ongoing row over Apple’s refusal of Google Voice, which has attracted the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. Apple is refusing to say what, if any, fundamental differences it sees between Google Voice and the Vonage app.
The app is also available on the BlackBerry, though in that case it only works on the data network, meaning it’s limited to Wi-Fi connections. One advantage with the BlackBerry edition is that users can simply activate it and have it automatically run whenever they make an international call while within Wi-Fi range. Users on the iPhone must fire up the app every time they make a call to get the cheap rates.
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