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Freshtel moves forward plans to launch mobile Internet telephony

Samantha Van - Thursday, November 29, 2007




As reported by Connectedaustralia.com yesterday‚ Freshtel Holdings Limited has signed an exclusive supply agreement with retailer JB Hi-Fi. Now‚ in another step forward‚ the company has entered the final stages of commercialisation of a unique converged mobile technology.

The technology will allow customers to make and receive calls over the Internet using their mobile handset and a WiFi hotspot.

Although it will initially be available only in the United Kingdom‚ Freshtel also plans to roll out the facility to Australia. "It is part of Freshtel's business development plan to bring the technology here‚ and they are already in discussions with potential partners‚" a Freshtel spokesperson told Connected yesterday.

In the meantime‚ Freshtel has entered into a financial agreement with supermarket chain Tesco to fine-tune the product for the UK market.

Under the agreement‚ Tesco will pay Freshtel an upfront licence fee for the rights to sell the product. Freshtel said this marks a significant milestone in the commercialisation strategy for Freshtel’s converged mobile technology.

Fully integrated Internet telephony solution
Freshtel CEO Rhonda O’Donnell said the converged mobile technology is the first fully integrated Internet telephony solution and is unique to any other mobile VoIP solution on the market.

“The key point of difference is that Freshtel has integrated the converged mobility solution with our White Label product‚ allowing partners to offer a full phone service from registration to credit top-up. This stand-alone application automatically configures the mobile handset to place a call over the Freshtel network when WiFi is available‚ and what’s more this can be done with the convenience of the users existing mobile phone number‚" O'Donnell said.

“Users don’t need to worry about which network they’re calling on or having a separate phone number for the Internet phone – it’s totally seamless. Users can simply call as they always have and automatically receive cheaper than traditional landline rates when WiFi is available‚” O’Donnell added.

Freshtel’s mobile Internet telephony solution also includes functionality such as the ability to see if your contacts are online and seamless switching between Internet-based instant messaging and SMS on the traditional network.

“The technology introduces really exciting‚ user-friendly features to mobile Internet telephony‚” O’Donnell said.







"Our aim is to make Internet telephony more accessible and desirable and to cater to the lifestyle of our customers," Frestel's