Think Skype. Ever tried it on your mobile phone? Those of you who did probably know that it doesn't work too great. Skype was written in the Delphi programming language, for fast computers running Windows. I'm one of the first 100,000 or so people who started using Skype, so I'm huge fan, but today we need a VoIP service that actually works on our internet-enabled mobile phones.
Enter Yeigo. Yeigo was built from the ground by 3 UCT graduates to be run on internet-ready mobile phones, whether they use 3G or Wi-Fi. Yeigo to Yeigo calls are free. If you call a friend who doesn't have Yeigo, you'll save about 80% on your calls. Even SMSs cost a 10th of the usual price.
Normally, a 1-hour call to my wife would cost me R150. With Yeigo, it should cost about R10, according to their co-founder, the vivacious Rapelang Rabana!
This means that Yeigo uses about 5MB of bandwidth in an hour. Compare this with Skype's 30MB!
Rapelang and her team are onto something phenomenal with Yeigo. She did a live interview for SaFM on Friday and the phones were ringing off the hook.
For MASSIVELY bringing down the costs of mobile phone calls in SA, Yeigo definitely gets this week's 'Yeah!Fi Mate of the Week' award!
6 comments:
Thanks for sharing! I've been thinking about Skype on my mobile, but haven't actually tried it. Thanks for sharing this though - I've just downloaded and I'm gonna try it out :D
The greatest thing about this is that I know you've tried it out in SA - a lot of great apps like this one don't always work in SA...
.. nice one ;)
erm.. does it actually work?
3G sucks. Latency is crap. Jitter, packet loss, long stalls of nothingness. I can't even use it for ssh without wanting to hurt small animals in frustration.
(..like the vodacom rat).
Also, obviously the GSM providers will want to keep a differentiated service (QoS) model so they can sell voice services.
This is like Wine and Samba chasing the Windows moving target.
In short, I'd be surprised if it works.
Yes, I am too lazy to try it.
Look at.. http://www.fring.com/
somebody phoned me using this today.. and it does not really work.
I have yet to try it over 3G or GPRS (I lie - they demo'd it to me on GPRS in the early days and it was not great, but hey, we're talking ~9k6kbps here!). It works a treat over WiFi and DSL - I have had it on a Nokia E61 for a few weeks.
VoWiFi is going to dent the Mobile Operators revenue - if nothing else convinces them of that, MXIT does.
There are others who have done similar (not in SA), but the Yeigo crew are bright and keen and I wish them all the best!
Registered and installed in less than 5 minutes. Got the R3 credit and made some great calls. Works very well with MTN 3G in Cape Town. Tested to landline calls still have to get a buddy to test cellphone to cellphone.
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