RingFree: SIP-Based Calling For Your iPhone
A couple of months ago, Voxilla-founder Marcelo Rodriguez called me up to chat. He mentioned that he was working on something iPhone related that was hush-hush. Filed it away in long-term storage.
Meanwhile, I get an update from LinkedIn saying Eric Chamberlin–also involved with Voxilla–is now involved with a company called RingFree. Hm… that sounds like it might be what Marcelo was talking about. Sure enough, it looks like they came out of stealth last week thanks to a posting on iPhone Atlas.
RingFree makes it possible to make SIP calls from your iPhone–without jailbreaking. This means it’s a web-based application and uses your GSM minutes. However, you’re not limited to making “normal” phone calls, but you can connect it up with your SIP-based IP PBX, a number of SIP-based VoIP providers, some of the instant messaging services, and of course, Free World Dialup (FWD). No Skype support, but you know who to blame for Skype’s walled garden approach.
I don’t have an iPhone-and won’t likely get one anytime soon–and they don’t support non-iPhone devices yet, so I don’t have any firsthand experience with this. However, this is clever in the sense that they are offering an innovative service on the iPhone using VoIP while a the same time, driving minutes on the GSM network. It’s currently free to try, so give it a shot and let me know what you think!
