Only requirement is to have flatrate for landlines (in Germany everybody have this).

It works like this:
Sign up for nonoh, top up 10€ credit
On Nonoh.net website you can find a local access number.
Dial that number and after few seconds of assisting voice you put the number which you want to call, click # and you get connected. No internet requirement.

Price for calling international landlines are 0-1 cent, for mobiles 7-10 cents.

To make things simple you can just save ready numbers in you address book. For example:
030 3119 0404, 004988888888 (access number, number you want to call)

When you dial this combination, whole thing goes automatically.

If you go abroad, just buy local sim card, get local access number from nonoh and voila, cheap international calls everywhere.

So, we only need now good mobile application which can do all this in background.

Its cheaper, no internet required and better call quality (calls are made over normal phone lines, not internet)

I hope some iphone developer will recognize this and make it real.

I’ve been using Betmax for years now and I probably saved thousands of euros comparing with other voip services.

And no, Im not working for Betamax, I just like their product

“And for those not on WiFi, Nimbuzz is introducing a so-called “Dial-Up VoIP” option that lets users make calls over 3G in over 50 countries”

I took this as they could use 3g data to pass voip packets to make the calls. Luckily I caught your reply down here and was corrected.

Why in the world did they need $10M, especially before market testing?

http://health.okguru.com

There is NOTHING new about this. Many companies are doing this, and most have an iphone app.

The story here should be why there is an illusion of value for companies like nimbuzz, truphone, jajah, fring, vbuzzer, et al. They’re all kludges that find ways to avoid “high” international calling rates.

They avoid higher rates by local connect and termination, and then VOIP the long leg of the transport. But there are still costs. The second the carriers (reluctantly) lower their rates, these guys are out of business. There is NO long term value any of these guys can create. None. No technology value, no mkt share value, no service value, absolutely nothing.

The good news is all consumers will eventually benefit, in that these kludges do apply downward pressure on rates.

Shame on you TC for missing the real story with companies like this. It makes me question the depth of the analysis on other sectors you cover. It doesn’t take a lot of insight to see through this.

If I’m wrong about anything here, I ask the community to point out my errors.