i2 Telecom Releases BlackBerry and Windows Mobile VoIP Service

i2Telecom (News - Alert) International has launched MyGlobalTalk  for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile users, allowing them to make  international and long distance cellular calls independent of wireless carrier, smartphone handset make, or voice or data plan for as low as two cents per minute anywhere in the world.

 

Users without smart phones or data plans can enjoy the same benefits by using the MyGlobalTalk “Bridge” also available online at www.myglobaltalk.com.

 

The move is but the latest effort by IP voice providers to provide lower-cost calling to mobile phone users, even to users who do not have smart phones with broadband data plans.

 

U.S. incumbents probably will continue to react as they have to the competition posed by fixed line VoIP: monitor the trend and gradually introduce transparent IP-based voice products over time. The issue is not so much inability to respond as a deliberate business decision to harvest legacy voice as long as possible while lower-priced competition gets more traction.

 

AT&T (News - Alert) did much the same as its once-dominant long distance business suffered from declining prices. But AT&T never was able to develop a workable revenue-replacement strategy, though it tried getting into the local phone business and cable TV business in big ways. Mobile providers arguably do not face issues that severe. So a rational response is to respond slowly on the tariff front, allowing some share to be taken, in order to preserve margin and pricing on the products the VoIP providers are cannibalizing.

 

MyGlobalTalk enables digital-quality international and long-distance calls to be made at a fraction of the cost charged by wireless carriers and, because it does not require local access to the Internet, it is functional virtually anywhere, the company says.

 

Sign up and membership to the service is free via www.myglobaltalk.com, and customers only pay for the calls they make with no contracts, connection fees, monthly or minimum charges.