Free VoIP For Your Windows Mobile Smartphone
Fring, the free mobile VoIP service that works just like Skype, is now available for Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6 smartphones. Get ready for some free mobile phone calls. — Here is a look at Fring for WinMo smartphones:
Context & Ripple Effects
Fring's Windows Mobile 5 and 6 release puts a free, Skype-style VoIP client directly onto smartphones, at a moment when Skype itself has been pushing the same opening from the policy side — its June 2007 [[entity:skype|FCC petition]] against carrier phone-locking practices argues consumers should be able to run the software they choose on handsets they own.
First-order effects
- Windows Mobile 5 and 6 smartphone owners can route calls over their data connection through Fring instead of consuming carrier voice minutes, with the service working 'just like Skype' per InformationWeek.
- Carriers lose metered-minute revenue on every handset running the client, since Fring's calls ride capacity the customer already pays for as data.
Second-order effects
- The move lands alongside Skype's public criticism of carriers for locking phones and limiting choice, pressuring operators whose lock-ups are precisely what keeps third-party clients like Fring off most of the installed base.
- Skype's own momentum in mid-2007 — the 3.2 release with its new sound engine, plus PayPal money transfer in beta — raises the bar Fring must match to hold users who want one client for both desktop and mobile calling.
Third-order effects
- If free mobile VoIP clients spread across smartphone platforms, voice migrates from a metered carrier service to an application on a general-purpose device, shifting operator pricing power toward flat-rate data plans and making handset-locking rules the decisive battleground.
The trend: Mobile telephony is splitting into two layers — carrier-controlled voice minutes and free over-the-top VoIP riding smartphone data connections — with handset-locking policy deciding which layer wins.