Free mobile web calls on the way

By Mark Prigg
Updated: 12:54 EDT, 12 June 2006

FREE internet phone calls are to be offered in pubs, stations and airports across London.

Vonage, an American internet phone company, has teamed up with The Cloud, which operates thousands of wireless internet hotspots across London.

Experts say it could 'significantly change' the market and force mobile phone companies to offer similar services.

The service is the first in Britain to offer mobile internet calls. Currently phone calls made via the internet (voice-over internet protocol, or VoIP), which are offered by Tesco and dozens of other companies, require users to plug a phone handset into their computer.

To use the new service, consumers buy a mobile phone that can wirelessly connect to an internet hotspot.

The service will offer free calls anywhere in Britain and Ireland to consumers who pay £90 for their internet mobile phone, then £7.99 to subscribe to Vonage's service. Experts today welcomed the move, claiming internet calls were set to change the phone industry.

'This is very significant,' said Jan Dawson of Ovum, a telecoms analyst. 'It seems the service is very user-friendly. Every mobile phone network will be working on something similar but Vonage is the first there.

'The mobile networks are worried but they will have the ability to link this with their network, so that when you walk out of a hotspot you automatically change to the traditional mobile phone network. That will give them a huge advantage.

'But this is a very interesting product and will appeal to a lot of people, particularly as coverage in central London is very good.'

The Cloud has signed deals to cover the boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea, Camden and Islington.

Later this year The Cloud will deploy a ground-breaking 'wi-fi' network across the City, all of which will be accessible to Vonage users.

Kerry Ritz, managing director of Vonage UK, said: 'Enabling users to make telephone calls while on the move is the inevitable next stage of the VoIP revolution. Vonage's partnership with The Cloud will provide our customers with the ability to make cheap voice calls while on their travels.

'For small and medium businesses, where controlling telecommunications costs is important, the service will be a great way of staying in touch while out of the office.'

How it works

• Customers sign up to Vonage for £7.99 per month, giving them free unlimited calls to UK and Irish landlines as well as to other Vonage customers wherever they are in the world.

• Customer buys a £90 internet mobile phone, which can be used anywhere in the world there is a free internet hotspot, or at thousands of central London hotspots operated by The Cloud.

• Calls are made and received as normal on the phone but, instead of being routed via a mobile phone network or BT's landline network, they are sent over the internet.