Both Barrels Communications Ltd

Mobile internet network operator Truphone has concluded an agreement to purchase the business of SIM4travel by way of an asset purchase agreement.

The purchase means that Truphone will acquire both SIM4travel’s travel SIM capability and its Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) platform. Integration of SIM4travel’s assets into Truphone’s own portfolio will begin immediately and take several months to complete.

Through the purchase, Truphone will take ownership of SIM4travel’s infrastructure, customer base, distribution and staff in Portugal and London.

James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO, said: “This completes Truphone’s GSM core network, allowing us to offer global mobile operator services. We’re already enabling customers to make low-cost Wi-Fi calls and soon we’ll be able to provide the added convenience of low-cost GSM calls too, all on a single, worldwide, Truphone SIM.”

Notes to editors

1. Truphone is the trading name of Software Cellular Network Limited.
2. For SIM4travel’s associated announcement, see here.

From today Truphone customers can check their credit balance by sending a text message with the word BALANCE to +44 (0) 7978 88 11 11.

Voicemail retrieval has also been streamlined: customers no longer need to enter their PIN number, as their identity is detected automatically.

“Truphone makes every effort to ensure that the process of making a free or low cost Truphone call is as simple as making any other phone call. These two small service refinements show how attention to detail extends to every aspect of the Truphone service,” said James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO.

Note to editors
Truphone does not charge its customers to check their balance when they’re connected to Truphone. Customers should check SMS charges with their operator if texting from a GSM number.

Truphone today welcomed Apple’s launch of the SDK for the iPhone, and in particular comments made by Steve Jobs regarding VoIP applications.

Truphone’s engineering department will be examining the SDK to see how it can help with the development of a Truphone client for the iPhone.

However – and not unlike Apple’s own approach to announcing products – there will be no further announcements regarding Truphone on the iPhone until such time as a consumer-ready application is available.

“We’ve already had a number of enquiries since the SDK was announced, because we were the first company to publicly demonstrate VoIP on the iPhone,” said James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO. “And our response today is that, clearly, we’ll be studying the SDK and investigating the obvious opportunities it brings.”

Truphone was the first company in the world to demonstrate a prototype VoIP client on the iPhone, at DEMOfall07, last October.

The days of ultra-high mobile phone charges for making a call while abroad or calling internationally are finally over. Truphone, the mobile operator for the internet age, has revealed a revolutionary new pricing structure that means roaming charges have vanished completely for its customers.

From anywhere on the planet, Truphone’s customers can call countries in its ‘Tru Zone’, on their mobile, at the fabulously low rates of just GBP0.03 per minute to landlines [USD0.06 per minute for Truphone customers from outside the UK] and GBP0.15 [USD0.30] per minute to mobiles. The 40 countries in the Tru Zone together account for 60% of the world’s mobile phones and include most EU countries, Australia, Japan and Russia. Calls to some countries – including China, Hong Kong, USA and Canada – will cost even less, at just GBP0.03 [USD0.06] per minute to both landlines and mobiles.

The potential savings for customers quickly mount up. At current prices, a 10 minute mobile call from Europe to a UK landline for a Vodafone UK customer with Vodafone’s International Call Saver option (which attracts a monthly GBP2.50 charge just to be on it) will cost GBP3.80, while the same call with Truphone costs a mere GBP0.30. Worse still, a Vodafone UK customer calling home from the USA on the same tariff will currently be charged an eye-watering GBP11.00 for a 10 minute call – but the same call with Truphone costs just GBP0.30.

In the USA, a Verizon Wireless customer without an international calling plan could pay as much as USD1.49 per minute to call a landline phone or USD1.68 to call a mobile phone in Germany. That same person calling from Germany (using a rented mobile phone) to the United States would be charged about USD1.29 per minute. With Truphone, it costs just USD0.06 per minute to call a landline in Germany, and USD0.30 to call a mobile – and to call the USA costs just USD0.06 whether to a landline or a mobile.

Truphone frees people not only from high prices but from the fear of those high prices. “People don’t know how much they’ll be charged to make a mobile call to friends abroad or to call back home from holiday. But they do know it’s expensive,” explained James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO. “So we’ve abolished roaming charges to make it the same low price to call, wherever you are in the world.”

“Wi-Fi and the internet, which we use to carry our customers’ calls, is everywhere. People on holiday, expatriates, migrant workers, business people, anyone with friends, family or colleagues in a different country… they can all now sidestep high roaming fees.

“People should be hanging up on roaming charges, not be hung up on them,” he said.

Truphone has also killed off roaming charges for receiving mobile calls abroad, something that routinely catches out travellers who don’t realise that they pay a high price for inbound calls. Receiving a call abroad costs absolutely nothing with Truphone – yet a Vodafone UK customer with Vodafone’s International Call Saver option is currently charged GBP0.75 per minute in the USA to answer a call from home. The same Vodafone customer is only marginally better off accepting an inbound call in Europe, where accepting an inbound call costs GBP0.19 per minute.

Accessible from countries across the world, Truphone has already attracted customers from more than 100 countries.

Because it routes calls over Wi-Fi and the internet, Truphone’s tariff structure relates solely to the destination being called, and whether that destination is a landline or a mobile. Where the call is made from becomes irrelevant, making roaming charges redundant – at last.

Truphone-to-Truphone calls remain free, no matter where in the world the two parties are.

Notes to editors

1. See the new Truphone website for more information.
2. Comparison pricing is correct as at February 29th 2008.
3. All customers based outside the UK are billed in US dollars.
4. Beyond the Tru Zone is an outer zone containing a further 30 countries, including India, Pakistan, South Africa and Bangladesh. Calls to these countries cost just GBP0.25 [USD0.50] per minute to mobiles, and just GBP0.05 [USD0.10] per minute to landlines.
5. Text messages to mobiles cost GBP0.10 [USD0.20] from/to anywhere in the world.
6. Calls charges to mobiles and landlines outside of either the Tru Zone or the outer zone vary, but are all at low, internet rates.
7. Pricing structure excludes calls to some premium and non-geographic rates.

Truphone today confirmed that its mobile VoIP service is supported on five new handsets: the Wi-Fi-equipped Nokia N95 8G, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8G, Nokia N82 and Nokia E51 models.

Truphone today announced that all Truphone call charges have been frozen at their current rates until February 29th 2008. For the next two months, Truphone calls will be free to landlines in 40 countries, and to mobiles in the USA, Canada and elsewhere. Using Truphone to call EU mobiles costs just 15 pence per minute or less.

Truphone call charges summary

• Free calls to landlines in 40 countries
• Free calls to cellphones USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong and Singapore
• Pay 15 pence or less to EU mobiles – and no connection charge
• Free mobile calls to other online Truphone customers
• No roaming fees: Truphone calls costs the same wherever you are
• No download cost, no monthly charge and no inbound fees
• These rates are guaranteed until February 29th 2008. Rates quoted are exclusive of VAT
• Anyone with a suitable handset can get Truphone by sending an SMS with the word ‘Tru’ to +44 7624 000000

Truphone today announced a unique softphone application built on Facebook Platform that enables Facebook users and their friends to call each other for free.

Among the ‘firsts’ introduced by the Truphone Call Me application is a moveable button that can be dropped anywhere on Facebook that accepts attachments, enabling users to:
- embed their Call Me button within Facebook messages;
- post their Call Me button onto their friends’ walls;
- drop their Call Me button onto Facebook group and discussion boards.

The Truphone Call Me application is available to all Facebook users. Users do not need a Truphone account or a special phone in order to use the application.

Core information

1. Facebook users adding the application choose the number on which they’d like to take inbound calls and get a Truphone Call Me button on their profile. A different number may easily be selected at any time, from these options:
   - Truphone mobile number
   - US cellphone
   - US landline
   - Other landline (choice from 40 countries worldwide)
   - Google Talk identity
   - Grand Central number
   - Any SIP phone
2. Currently and until at least December 31st 2007, calls made using a Truphone Call Me button to any of these numbers are free, in line with Truphone’s present pricing.
3. To make a call directly from their PC, any friend may simply click on the Call Me button and the Truphone application makes the call via a softphone embedded into Facebook. Truphone’s ‘click to call’ approach differs from some other ‘click to call back’ (“bridging”) applications which require both the caller and callee to add their numbers.
4. A user’s Call Me Button can be set to only be visible to that user’s friends. Actual phone numbers are not revealed.
5. Facebook users may use the Call Me Button on their friends’ profiles for free for a limited period before they must install the application themselves. There is no cost or commitment.
6. The Truphone Call Me application is a regular Facebook application, so users can get it in the usual ways: – by clicking ‘Add’ when they see a Truphone Call Me Button on a friend’s profile – searching for Truphone in the application directory on Facebook.
7. Facebook is a social utility that offers an efficient way for people to stay connected with their friends and the people around them. Facebook users communicate and share information through the social graph, the network of connections and relationships between people. With more than 54 million users, Facebook is the sixth most-trafficked website in the United States. Facebook recently launched Facebook Platform, a development platform that enables companies and engineers to integrate with Facebook and gain access to millions of users. More than 50 per cent of Facebook users return to the site each day, providing unparalleled distribution potential for applications and the opportunity to build a business that is highly relevant to people’s lives.

Quotes

Dean Elwood, platform director, Truphone, said:

• “A generation of people is emerging that doesn’t use email. Instead, they use Facebook, messaging, and wall postings. Our view was that the Truphone Call Me application should remain true to the Facebook user experience, and to achieve that we’ve delivered an application with some truly progressive elements.”
• “The Truphone Call Me application is completely embedded within the existing Facebook user experience. We never make a user leave Facebook or have to pick up another device such as a phone; instead, we’ve embedded a softphone into Facebook.”
• “One particularly exciting thing is that anytime a new service that accepts attachments is introduced to Facebook, our application will work on it because the Truphone Call Me button can be dropped into any attachment. So people may use our application in ways that haven’t been envisaged yet.”

James Tagg, Truphone’s chief executive officer, said:

• “By using Truphone VoIP, the Truphone Call Me application delivers real, practical value and uses VoIP to bridge social media with regular telephony.”
• “In the same way that messages on Facebook are always welcome because they are by definition always from friends, phone calls from friends are surely welcome too. We want to encourage people to talk to each other more and, using Truphone, we can help to get people talking again spontaneously and for free.”

Links

• Video showing how it works
• Truphone website
• Truphone pictures
• Picture: James Tagg, Truphone CEO
• Facebook (link directly to Truphone application page)

Red Herring Magazine has announced that Truphone has won a Red Herring 100 Global 2007 award. Some 1800 companies – Red Herring 100 winners and finalists from North America, Europe and Asia in the last three years – were eligible for the awards, which celebrate the world’s most promising private technology ventures.

James Tagg, Truphone’s CEO, said: “Truphone is on a mission to create the mobile operator for the internet age. This award is a welcome acknowledgment of what we’re doing and how we’re going about it.”

The Red Herring editorial team used a very competitive process to whittle down the pool of 1800 eligible promising companies to the 100 winners of this first-time award. Evaluations were made on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, innovation, management, global strategy, and ecosystem integration. The winning companies were announced and celebrated at the Red Herring Global event in Seattle, USA, between December 3-5.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine; an online daily technology news service; technology research, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. For more information, visit www.redherring.com.

A phone is for 18 months, not just for Christmas

Up to a million unwary Christmas shoppers risk committing themselves to hundreds of pounds of payments for new mobile phones which will be obsolete within months.

Although figures show that most people in the UK that want a mobile phone already own one, they remain one of the most popular Christmas presents – and anywhere up to a million will be bought in the UK in the run-up to Christmas. In particular this year, operators have promoted the idea of the ‘mobile Internet’, which means people can use their mobile to surf the web, download music, use Facebook, watch television programmes and make cheap mobile calls via the Internet.

But experts at mobile Internet calls company Truphone warned today that up to 75% of shoppers will buy a phone that won’t let them do all these things. Hundreds of thousands will lock themselves out of the coming mobile Internet revolution until the middle of 2009 by locking themselves into an 18 month contract for a handset that is not fully Internet-ready.

By contrast, a new breed of handsets known as ‘smartphones’ are more like handheld, Internet-powered, Wi-Fi-equipped computers than simple mobile phones and make the mobile Internet a reality. However, less than 25% of mobile phones sold in the UK are smartphones, despite the fact that they are widely available at subsidised prices with a contract.

James Tagg, chief executive of Truphone, advises shoppers both to add up the lifetime cost of their contract and to choose a phone that won’t be obsolete within a few months.

“The mobile Internet is amazing – watching TV on your mobile on the bus and making free mobile calls over Wi-Fi from a coffee shop are both things you can do today. But these are going to remain out of reach of most people for the next two years unless they’re encouraged to buy the phones that can actually use the mobile Internet to its potential. Yes, many people will spend hard-earned money on uncomplicated pay-as-you-go phone models because they’re not interested in anything except phone calls, but many others will commit to paying £20, £30 or even more per month for the next 18 months for a phone that means they’ll still be left out of the fun and cut out of the savings,” he said.

“Our advice is clear: get yourself one of the latest cool breeds of smartphone. You wouldn’t buy a TV that isn’t HD-ready these days, so don’t buy a mobile phone that isn’t Internet-ready. Remind yourself that you’ll almost inevitably want to use it to do ‘cool’ things over the 18 months you’ll be paying for it.”

Truphone’s Top Tips

1. Don’t buy a phone that isn’t Internet-ready. You wouldn’t buy a TV that isn’t HD-ready.
2. Consider the lifetime cost of your phone and shop around. It’s possible to get a fully Internet-ready smartphone for the same outlay as an ordinary phone.
3. Remember that UK contracts are now usually 18 months long, not 12.
4. Ask about the cool things you can already do with the mobile Internet today.
5. Consider buying SIM-free if you don’t want to be locked in to a new 18-month contract with your operator and for the widest choice of handsets.

[ends]

Notes to editors

1. One million mobile phones are expected to be sold in the UK in Q4 2007 (source: PocketPicks), giving an annualised total for 2007 of 4m phones. Total volume of smartphone sales in the UK in 2007 is predicted to be 920,000 units (source: GfK). Therefore, approximately 23% of handsets sold in the UK during 2007 will be smartphone; 77% will not.
2. The new Nokia N81 smartphone is available from O2 at three different prices: for free with a £50/month, 18 month contract; for £19.99 with a £35/month, 18 month contract; or for £89.99 with a £25/month, 18 month contract (source: O2 website, as at 30/11/07).
3. There is no industry-standard definition of a smartphone. Wikipedia says that “a smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with PC-like functionality.”
4. Worldwide, 289.1m handsets were shipped between July and September 2007 (source: IDC). Of that 289.1m, 20.4m handsets were Symbian-based smartphones (source: Symbian). Symbian has a smartphone market share of approximately 70% (source: Symbian). Therefore approximately 28m of the 289.1m handsets shipped – less than 10% – were smartphones.

Links

• Turkey
• Truphone pictures
• Truphone videos

Large latte? Would you like mobile phone calls with that?

Truphone today announced the addition of 260 hotspots to the expanding estate of locations from where Truphone can be used to make free and low-cost mobile phone calls over Wi-Fi and the Internet.

The 260 hotspots, operated by wireless internet service provider Surf and Sip, are currently sited within Caffe Nero coffee houses, with more locations planned to follow.

Core facts

1. Using a Surf and Sip Wi-Fi hotspot is completely straightforward, with no registration, sign-up process or need to enter credit card details. Truphone customers simply run the Truphone Wizard once to log on and begin making calls.
2. Currently, Truphone is available for a range of handsets including Nokia’s E-series handsets and several N-series handsets. Owners of a compatible handset can get Truphone simply by texting the word ‘TRU’ to 07624 000000 or by visiting the Truphone web site.
3. Truphone calls from Surf and Sip Wi-Fi hotspots are charged at just 3p/minute more than Truphone’s standard published rates. Under Truphone’s present price promotion (valid until at least the end of December 2007) this means that Truphone call charges from a Surf and Sip hotspot are:
   - 3p/minute to landlines in 40 countries
   - 3p/minute to cellphones USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong and Singapore
   - 18p/minute or less to EU mobiles, with no connection charge.
4. Surf and Sip provides high-speed wireless Internet access in cafes, hotels, restaurants and other high traffic public establishments.

Quotes

Chris Isaacs, Truphone’s Business Development Director, said:

• “Making mobile calls over their coffee is what many people do anyway, but now it costs less. And, because each Surf and Sip location appears the same to a Truphone handset, Truphone will even automatically log on the next time you walk into a Surf and Sip hotspot – even if it’s actually a new location to you. Your Truphone handset is really starting to look after your wallet.”
• “We’re also doing something new by removing the barriers to people using public Wi-Fi hotspots and making it easy. We don’t make people sign up to anything, or enter credit card details, or do anything that makes it unattractive. It’s easy: people need only to run the Truphone Wizard once, and then start making mobile phone calls while they wait for their coffee to cool down.”
• “Truphone is good for both Wi-Fi hotspot operators and it’s good for mobile phone users – especially those that like to chat over a great coffee.”

Rick Ehrlinspiel, CEO at Surf and Sip, said:

• “Truphone and Surf and Sip are giving people what they want: low cost calls, on phones they like, from places they want to be.”

Links

• Picture: Caffe Nero coffee house
• Website: Surf and Sip
• Website: Truphone
• Picture: Chris Isaacs, Truphone