Truphone has re-vamped its iPhone app with two crucial new features. The first, dubbed Truphone Anywhere enables iPhone users to make low-priced international calls via the GSM network even when they are not connected to Wi-Fi. This is significant because prior to this you needed WiFi. The second is that inbound Truphone calling on the iPhone has now been added for the first time. That means Truphone-made calls between two iPhones are free. In addition - and this is somethiing business users will probably like - Truphone users will be able to indicate ‘presence’, as in ‘available’ or not.
With the new main feature, customers will pay for a local connection to the GSM network before the rest of the call is connected using VoIP. That would make an international call around $.06 per minute from the US to another country (or 3 pence if you were calling from the UK).
However, two features remain missing - text messaging and an ‘always on’ feature so you can get Truphone calls even when you aren’t running the app. However, I gather they are working on these kinds of issues, and as we all know Apple is not yet allowing third party apps to run in the background.
Meanwhile, Truphone itself appears to be going to some internal pain. At least that’s what it looks like from the outside. A reliable source told me the company has had to “slaughter a few holy cows”. That may or may not refer to the shift earlier this year of CEO James Tagg to Chief Architect, while new CEO Geraldine Wilson was brought in from Yahoo’s mobile division to shake up the company. They also moved from plush offices overlooking London’s Tower Bridge, to more spartan offices nearby enabling all staff to be on the same floor.
In addition some key members of the original team are rumored to be in negotiations about a quiet exit although when I asked her about this Wilson declined to be drawn on the details, saying only “We have made a number of positions redundant, we wanted to get the cost base down mainly as hard core development had been completed and we also wanted to change our mix of skills. We have very few commercial skills. So we made some redundancies. That process is nearly complete but not quite.”
Not that any internal changes reflect the company’s financial position. It has £31.5m funding and word is that revenues from call charges are going well. Plus it just released an app for the iPod Touch which effectively turns the device into a cellphone.
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OK, so I’ll play the bad guy here and point out that, in the first sentence of this article, “it’s” is a contraction for “it is” and “its” is a possessive meaning something belonging to it.
Yeah, I know everyone hates grammar police but I love TechCrunch enough to want to see you look as professional as possible. (So feel free to delete this comment if you correct the sentence.)
As they’ve said on many occasions, TC are not journalists and have no standard of quality.
People never want to give the details.
The new anywhere feature is great… but it doesn’t seem to work. I’ve tried 3 times to make a call from London to Toronto… no luck.
You may want to email support@truphone.com or visit the mobile voip forum http://www.mobilevoipforum.org for help. I used it and it worked perfectly.
My wife tried Truphone on the iPhone to call her mother in Japan. Her mother kept saying “What’s wrong with your phone?” She had to hang up and go back to using Onesuite.com (which is cheaper anyway).
Jeff, Seattle
Not sure about quality on the call, the ((truphone)) is recognized as a Gold Standard. yes it is not the cheapest provider but I have used it since 2 years for all my business calls and have had never any issues, Not on Nokia, neither on iPhone or blackberry. Sometimes the WiFi access point could be the reason. I use it mainly on Nokia and my new Nokia E71 does it perfectly.
True, it could have been my Airport/Comcast combo.
With repeat attempts I get a very pleasant woman telling me that the international number I’m trying to dial isn’t in service.
Anyone get it to work?
It works perfectly today.
I’m really surprised this app survived the Apple review process. Several other apps have been pulled because they duplicated functionality built into the iPhone. Last time I checked, calling was already a function of the iPhone!
Also, you’d think that AT&T (and other carriers tied to the iPhone) would be clamoring to get this app axed. Either Apple has some balls and is pushing back, or they are afraid of the public outcry for pulling an app like this.
I love you analysis. Clearly truphone is great for calls from iPhone to iPhone when you are all on the ((truphone)) network. IP to IP calling is nothing which is build into the phone the last time I bought an iPhone. Therefore I am glad ((truphone)) build the app and allows you to also terminate on landline and regular mobiles. It also helps in situations in which you have no coverage. I believe the US has still quite some dead spots, so WiFi can help. But in general the international calling is not enabled once you get a contract, so truphone is a great alternative.
You know, I was just thinking that having a good looking interface is overrated.
I’m an iphone developer. I have apps in the store. Let me break the news to you… there will NOT be a version of ANY app that allows a true “alway-on” experience. The platform doesn’t allow the idea of a “service” that runs in the background. Any implementation of this type of thing will be some hack around this limitation.
So how does this app differ from Skype?
The application just calls a local access number and places the international call through their switch. The fact that they use VoIP to carry the call is fairly irrelevant, pretty much any cheap calling provider would be doing that today, it’s just a transport mechanism.
The call starts as a GSM call, gets carried internationally as VoIP and then onto the fixed network to terminate to the called number.
But it can also terminate on the truphone network in which case the call is FREE. Used case. You dial from the US to India (the called party in India has a truphone enabled phone). You call him via ((truphone)) anywhere, effectively you only take the minutes out of your bundles in the US, the remaining journey on ((truphone)) is completely free, all the way to INDIA. WHO can beat this?
Wow, just got back from LeWeb and tested the new ((truphone)) iPhone app. I love the presence indication. Once you have moved your Tru Buddies into the favourites they are indicated with a Green arrow to be ON Net. My father as well as Stefan Menden our associate are ONnet, so I called my father on his US truphone Number in Germany. The CALL was Crystal clear. Again a sign how high quality the apps by truphone are, the voice quality in my mind is better than GSM once you are IP to IP. Just love the new app. Lot’s of bugs fixed and lots of new feature, truphone anywhere is something I cannot live without, I got used to it on my Nokia’s but I am very glad it is now also available on my iPhone. GREAT job ((truphone)) guys, keep innovating.
It shows how a newcomer can bring services to the market we all have been waiting for. Presence for example is so hugely helpful if you are using your phone for business. This is just the beginning of a new mobile voice area with lots of very useful feature and add ons.
@ Alexander Straub:
Why did you not disclose that you are an investor in Truphone?
Pretty lame marketing efforts by you.