Truphone will today give the first public demonstration of a Voice over Internet Protocol over Wi-Fi phone call on the Apple iPhone. Chief executive officer James Tagg will make the VoIP call in front of an audience of 350 delegates to DEMOfall 07 in San Diego, CA.
The company will also give a demonstration of an application that mashes up social networking site Facebook and traditional telephony. Any Facebook user will be able to click on a friend’s Truphone ‘Call Me’ button, and a free phone call will be initiated to whichever phone their friend has chosen. This will mean free calls to real phones for everyone in the Facebook community.
Altogether, Truphone will today demonstrate:
- VoIP on the Apple iPhone (SIP-SIP, SIP-Phone, Phone-SIP)
- VoIP from Facebook (to SIP and to PSTN) — and, as an encore, Facebook-iPhone using SIP.
Key facts iPhone demonstration
- Many people have called for true VoIP calling on Apple’s iPhone. Truphone will today prove that it is possible using the iPhone in-built Wi-Fi capability.
- Truphone’s demonstration will comprise two iPhones connected to Wi-Fi on the DEMOfall 07 stage. A VoIP call will be initiated from one handset, routed via Wi-Fi and the Internet to Truphone’s servers, and then back again to the access point and onwards to the destination handset — a 100% IP phone call.
- Today’s event will be a live demonstration only and is not a commercial launch of Truphone on the iPhone.
- Truphone does not need to unlock the SIM in order to operate its service for the iPhone.
Facebook demonstration
- The company will also give a demonstration today of an application that mashes up social networking site Facebook with traditional telephony. The big differentiator between Truphone’s demonstration and other applications for Facebook is that Truphone is the only one to embed an actual phone into the very heart of Facebook.
- Facebook users will be able to drop their Truphone ‘Call Me’ button onto their friends’ Walls and also embed it into Facebook messages. People will be able to allow other people to call them, while keeping their actual number confidential.
- The Truphone ‘Call Me’ button for Facebook to be demonstrated today showcases the potential for additional innovative services enabled by Truphone’s all-IP internet telephony infrastructure.
- Truphone’s Facebook application is currently in development.
Quotes
James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO, said:
— “Truphone is truly the mobile operator for the internet age and our aim is to see Truphone available on all cellular phones with the inherent functionality needed to make VoIP calls. The Apple iPhone is such a phone and we’re pleased to be able to show it working for real.”
— “People today use multiple tools to communicate in different ways at different times, but this multiplication of options can serve to confuse consumers. By providing the Facebook community with free calls to real phones, Truphone will genuinely help bridge the worlds of traditional and internet telephony.”
About Truphone (http://www.truphone.com)
In mid-2006, Truphone was the first company to introduce true internet telephony (‘VoIP’) for mass market mobile phones, enabling free and low-cost calls from handsets via Wi-Fi and the Internet. The company is closely involved with the open source community and is developing the Truphone service in accordance with internationally-recognised open standards. The company has development teams and partners in locations across Finland, Romania, USA and the UK. In December 2006 Truphone was selected as a ‘Technology Pioneer for 2007’ by the World Economic Forum. At the end of 2006 it received the biggest Series-A venture capital investment of the year for a European technology company. Truphone is the trading name of Software Cellular Network Limited (SCN), a privately-owned UK technology company founded in 2000. For further information, visit http://www.truphonepressoffice.com.
Important information about emergency calls: Truphone is not a replacement for an ordinary telephone service and emergency calls cannot be made using Truphone. However Truphone does not prevent emergency calls being made via a handset’s normal cellular service provider.
Truphone, Apple, iPhone and Facebook may be trademarks or registered trademark of their respective owners.
Video*: on-booth demonstration at DEMOfall — 07
(http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2007/09/truphone-on-the.html)
