Fring on the iPhone

Follow-up to VOIP on the iPhone from Steve's blog

And finally Fring appeared in the app store last week. It talks Skype and SIP as well as the usual set of IM protocols, and it works pretty well. I immediately fed it the details of my Sipgate account and it worked first time, both for outgoing calls and incoming. Sipgate give you a geographical number (a Coventry number in my case, although you get a choice) with your account so people can call you on it whereever you happen to be. So, the “keeping in touch while abroad” problem just got easier still, because I can be called from home via a number that’s free from our BT line.

Of course, there are the usual iPhone limitations. Namely, fring won’t run in the background so incoming calls only work while the app is in the foreground, and thanks mobile carrier fussiness it only works over WiFi links when 3G would work perfectly well. The same limitations apply to TruPhone too, of course.

Still, despite those limitations, both apps should make keeping in touch while travelling a much less costly venture.

Steve Rumsby : 06 Oct 2008 09:18 |  Tags: Iphone |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem