Goodbye Hello Card: No cheap calling cards from Singtel anymore

Source: Singtel

There goes another product which I loved a lot. This time it's Hello card. Basically it is a prepaid international calling card to make cheap (It's ~1-2c / min to many nations in asia pacific) voice calls. On top of it, the icing is you can let it call you back to minimize your outgoing minutes usage.

This is by far the most popular card for many of my friends who still use this as a backup on top of Skype/Facetime/Whatsapp. As most of us experienced, sometimes the plain old voice call using mobile CS is better than blazing fast LTE or WiFi.

Guess one of the reason is the popular Hi card from Singtel which is the mobile prepaid card which bundles cheap voice calls to specific countries and offer custoimzed top-ups based on subscriber country. e.g. topup a package to get 100 min to philippines or something.

Wish Netflix to come soon (they have announced that it's early 2016) and kill my other hated service which is MIO TV :)

Viber Desktop - Change of strategy?? or just can't afford to miss desktop

Source: Viber

I believe, finally things started to change and 'apps' from mobile world started to enter 'desktop'.

I always believe, there is a limit to mobile/tablets and replacing laptop/desktop would not be possible in the near future. It may happen in one day in the future but not so soon. Tab/Mobile are good to 'read' but to act, we still rely on notebooks/desktops.

So when I saw the announcement, it's kind of wow to me. Mainly we've been used to an application on Desktop, then eventually see it on Mobile. But this is kind of odd

I've taken couple of screen shots of the interface and looks pretty simple, and straight forward. No bells, whistles, and no "call out" or "skype out" functionality like where you can call landlines/regular mobiles.

 So it's still closed to Viber alone. I guess, we can see an option to 'pay' to make outgoing calls to regular PSTN or Mobile phones soon. Basically, this is where they can make some money from VoIP users. Like Skypeout or Fringout or even Google Voice ;)

+60301 Phone Number.. Finally found it's from the VoIP software pFingo, Starhub.

Recently my phone rings at quite odd times and when I look at the incoming number, it's a bit weird too. The number is +60301.
I picked up few calls and end up disconnecting as its from some marketing folks from China speaking in mandarin. So I decided not to pick this call anymore.

But lately I started receiving complaints from a overseas friend that I am not accepting calls. After couple of minutes I realized the number is from pFingo. It's a VoIP service from Starhub, a singapore telco.

The good thing is you can make calls to Singapore phone numbers at dirt cheap rates (1c) and if you are on a monthly pack it's basically free. So understand that many SME's, people on travel tend to use this service and so does the marketing folks from China/HK/Other countries(who wish to reach Singapore).

I am not sure whether is there a solution but personally I won't change my selective call picking pattern which is to pick up a call if I know the caller (stored in address book) or it's a mobile number. This is the main reason I opted for Skype Out & Google Voice which gives me Caller ID.

With Skype you can simply set up your mobile number as the ID number. Instructions are here. & Google Voice is simple. You'll get a US number and people will see that number.

Microsoft purchases Skype.

Source: Microsoft

I am quite optimistic about this deal. Mainly from three different points, say

1. Kinect/Gaming strategy
2. Mobile VoIP/Windows 7 overall strategy
3. Online market/Microsoft internet strategy

In 2009 Skype became the largest long distance call company with 8% of international market share, and in 2010 the market share increased to 12%. The numbers are staggering with 54 billion minutes and close to 550 million registered users and 50+ million paid users (Of course Skype still struggling to make profits).

What Microsoft can do with Skype is to integrate with their existing products.

* Kinect became a huge hit and Microsoft will certainly integrate Skype/Video calls with Kinect platform.

* As per Pyramid reports, windows 7 will overtake Android by 2015 and skype can be a very nice addition to smart phones. Also skype is a semi-business tool for frequent travelers and I've seen some SME's & consultants even printing their skype ID on business cards. So this will make a lot of sense to have skype onboard

* We all know how MS tried to buy Yahoo couple of years back. MS wants to put their name in internet arena and skype can help that.

Also MS is sitting on piles of free cash. The amount paid is ~ 10xPE and I'd think this is the right price. They can open new areas of revenue to make it profitable. One big issue will be to reduce the call charges. Skype is no longer competitive compared to new VoIP providers. I've done some comparison here. If they can reduce the prices or offer flat rate plans in a new countries that'll bring new revenue.

In Singapore or APAC I don't see a big impact of Skype on TELCO's right now but moving forward with greater access speeds Skype/Microsoft can pose a bigger threat jointly with Apple Facetime, Google Voice & other VoIP providers.


On a side note, now I'm pretty curious to see how Cisco will do with their Umi service :). If Cisco acquires Skype that would've made them instantly the market leader of VoIP market and they could've integrated Skype Video with their Umi box. But MS did the right thing now.

VoIP, SIP - Advantage of TELCO, Mobile Operators over OTT players

For the past couple of days I am going through the RCS and other alternative technologies that can pose a challenge to traditional telco revenue. GSMA published a good document here
Then a question came in to my mind.

"What is the USP or what are the clear advantages if a TELCO or Mobile Operator choose launch a VoIP service compared to the traditional internet players like Google, Skype etc. "


Though there are traditional answers vendor propose (e.g. TELCO knows the customer, good point of contact or offer at a cheap rate or bundling service etc etc), I started to look from Customer point of view and at first i thought it's CLIP or Caller Line Identification. When I use SkypeOut or Google Voice or FringOut the receiving party cannot see my number. So if a TELCO choose to launch then they can integrate with their soft switch and pass the CLIP via SIP.

Then I realized my SkypeOut calls can be configured with CLIP which means there is a way or means to do it. So what other unique propositions an operator can propose to the Customer to opt for Operators VoIP service?

Comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

VoIP, Cheap calling using Skype, Fring, Google Out or others

I've been a loyal user of Skype since it went mainstream. Lately I realized there are few other alternatives with similar features/simplicity.

1. Google Voice started offering Google Out or calling phones (not sure what's the standard name) and it works great. For USA the calls are free and for the rest of the world, the charges are similar/cheaper than Skype.
2. Fring. I've used Fring on my E71 couple of years due to the fact that there was no Skype support. But when Skype launched the official app I removed it. But when I was checking my emails I saw a promo from Fring on their Fring out rates. I am pretty surprised that the rates are far more cheaper than Skype/Google. So I gave it a try
3. Jumblo. This is basically from the same guys who offers VoIP Stune, VoIP Buster etc. So initially didn't considered but the rates are pretty comparable to Fring and realized that this is quite popular in South Korea due to the fact that it offers free calls to Korea :)

Below is a comparison of VoIP rates of the five options I've (on top of calling cards but I like to call direct instead of going through the options of selecting language, and waiting) and really surprised that Fring offering such competitive rates. But the sad portion is Fring doesnt have a Desktop client like Skype, Google or others. You need to use it on a mobile phone which is a big drawback.

The prices are in USD (Cents/Min)

After using the options, finally I decided to go with Google Voice for my direct calls as I can have the flexibility of using a browser to make calls, or use a standalone client rather than depending on Mobile phone. I still have some credt in Fring and it may come handly when I need to make calls to destinations like UK-Mobile where the difference is considerable (18c vs 0.8c per min)


Finally need to claim my blog @ technorati.
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