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back to article Truphone picks up Sim4Travel

VoIP operator Truphone has snapped up cheapo-roaming operator SIM4 Travel, with a view to combining the operations and providing travellers with low-cost VoIP calls over cellular infrastructure. Truphone has spent £1.34 million in cash, along with £1.3 million in shares, for the company whose own shares have been in steady …

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  1. Wonderkid
    Thumb Up

    TruPhone is a great service!

    I got to try it between two Nokia handsets a few months ago. I was initially sceptical, expecting TruPhone to either fail or delivery poor quality, but it worked first time - same quality as a regular call. And this is the future folks!

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  2. Vince
    Paris Hilton

    @Wonderkid

    Is it the future? You mean you're still paying for international calls in the first place? Get with the now!

    Paris, cause she does cheap.

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  3. Steffen Schubert

    Still too expensive !

    With a local SIM card and a Direct-Inbound-Dial (DID) number and call forwarding through VoIP (e.g. the "Continental" product from www.IrishCall.eu) to my local SIM I can receive calls anywhere in the world for some €0.20/£0.12 and make calls via SMS callback with the same product for the price of an SMS + €0.20/£0.12! By using this service and routing the calls myself, I have been able to make/receive a lot cheaper than TruPhone or eKit or other companies offering global SIM cards. And once I am back at home, I simply redirect my inbound number to my home phone and callers can reach me there, too. Noone ever notices that I am abroad or where I am in the world and I can make/receive calls without incurring massive cost. So where exactly is the advantage of this TruPhone service?

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  4. Wonderkid

    @Vince: What matters is reliability...

    Price is not the issue, reliability and convenience is. Communication is vital to our way of life and business - so low cost half baked solutions won't suffice. My enthusiasm for TruPhone is based on the fact that when Skype was at the same stage (as a business) as TruPhone is today, it was unreliable, the call quality was pants and you were constrained to your desktop. TruPhone works well on handsets today, making it convenient. All they need do is further integrate it into other services and grow it. (I use Skype on my desktop & laptop, I am subscribed to SkypeOut, and it is excellent, don't get me wrong.) All said, what we really need is a P2P solution that renders the telcos obsolete. Bring on WiMax proper! :-)

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  5. andy

    cheaper routing?

    quote:

    "The company isn't commenting on plans, but it's easy to imagine a scenario similar to the 3UK/Skype arrangement. Calls made from a Truphone-equipped handset would be routed over the cellular network to the nearest Truphone hub, and then converted to VoIP connections for cheaper routing "

    _

    I don't quite understand how you get to this assumption about a so-called Truphone hub, as the SIM card is on an mvno and is roaming on a UK network, and the calls are routed via 2 other companies as well. At the moment UM's tariffs are already slightly cheaper than its reseller, so it will be interesting to see what happens

    What's more, I don't understand how you expect this to help with the T-mobile dispute, as Truphone has not become a main GSM network by dint of this, and Jersey mobiles aren't in T-mobile inclusive minutes either.

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  6. Trevor Watt

    Just buy a local SIM card

    Works for me, calls from Egypt were costing me about 6p a minute last summer.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    There ain't no "British court system", Bill...

    > That case is still winding its way through the British court system...

    Where? There are no British courts! There are civil and criminal Courts in England & Wales, where English law is practised, and there are (completely different) civil and criminal Courts in Scotland, where Scots law is practised.

    They are (watch my lips) completely and utterly different legal systems, although some UK statute law applies to both jurisdictions, e.g. most (but not all) motoring laws.

    Ditto for Northern Ireland, which (IIRC) is in the United Kingdom but not in Great Britain.

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