Mobile VoIP is really starting to take off, as evidenced by mobile VoIP provider Truphone’s announcement today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that its mobile VoIP service is supported on three new, WiFi-enabled Nokia (News - Alert) handsets: the Nokia E61i, Nokia E65 and Nokia E90.

Subscribers to Truphone’s mobile VoIP service can now use these dual mode, GSM/WiFi phones to make VoIP calls - for either free or dirt cheap - over WiFi (News - Alert) connections.

“The new Nokia E61i, Nokia E65 and Nokia E90 phones will be very popular and Truphone works on them from day one,” said James Tagg, CEO of Truphone, ina press release. “With other manufacturers also starting to put WiFi on handsets, 2007 is the year that mobile meets the Internet - and that means Truphone VoIP.”

The Truphone client software has reportedly completed the Symbian “signing process” and is available for all new and existing Nokia WiFi VoIP handsets.

London-based Truphone announced the launch of the beta of its WiFi Telephony service in selected markets in September. It is one of many companies now working to deliver WiFi Telephony (or VoWLAN) to consumers and businesses.

WiFi Telephony is just one form of mobile VoIP, and should not be confused with other wireless network technologies such as EV-DO rev A (which is synchronously high speed - both high speed up and down), HSDPA and WiMAX.

Truphone’s service now works on Nokia’s E (News - Alert)-series and N-series handsets. The company also plans to support additional WiFi-enabled phones, including those built on the Windows Mobile platform, in the near future.

VoIP calls between Truphone handsets are free worldwide, while calls to landlines and other mobile phones will be charged at characteristically low VoIP rates. For a limited time, users in the US can get free calls here and in Canada. Meanwhile, UK users will be able to call some two billion landlines in major countries for free.

Truphone’s software integrates seamlessly with a WiFi phone’s existing address book. Once set up to use a WiFi hotspot, the handset connects automatically next time the phone is in range. This “seamless handover” between networks is a critical feature because users do not want to be burdened with having to manually switch the phone over when entering a “hot spot.”

The company plans to add new features to the service over time, including support for Truphone SMS messaging, presence functionality, and, further out, geo-location and community-building.

The SIP-based mobile VoIP platform employs several leading-edge techniques, including the self-healing, small-footprint AMR codec to ensure optimal call quality even under less than optimal conditions. Plus, unlike other WiFi applications, it uses smart, low-level coding to minimize power consumption.

Just last week, Truphone announced that Google (News - Alert) Talk users can now connect with Truphone mobile handsets anywhere in the world for free.

”With this collaboration, people can know exactly when they can make a free call,” TMCnet’s Niladri Sekhar Nath wrote. “Calls between Google Talk and Truphone are free because they are VoIP calls and take place entirely over the Internet. However, the Google servers and Truphone servers are connected through the standard XMPP protocol.”

In addition, the company made news on TMCnet in January when it announced that it had secured $24.5 million in venture capital from several prominent investment groups – the largest round of Series A funding in the European tech sector for 2006. The mobile VoIP start-up said in a press release that it will use the funding “to execute its vision of fundamentally changing the economics of mobile communications and providing revolutionary new services to mobiles,” as well as to increase the selection of handsets it supports and launch its mobile VoIP service in markets “across the globe.”

For more information, visit www.truphone.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.