iPhone VoIP Comes with Trade-Offs

The iPhone has certainly been at the center of the news recently. Apple Inc. introduced the new iPhone 3G model and sold more than 1 million of the devices the first weekend that they were available. And through its online App Store, Apple for the first time began to offer third-party applications that can run on both new and earlier iPhone models (the latter requires users to upgrade to version 2.0 of the operating system). For many cost-conscious users, the most important iPhone apps will involve VoIP, which will let them avoid the high cost of calling overseas from a mobile phone. But as is the case with all mobile VoIP solutions, iPhone VoIP will come with trade-offs

Truphone's VoIP App

Truphone was the first company out of the gate with a new iPhone VoIP app. Software downloaded to the iPhone lets Truphone's app make calls over the company's VoIP backbone network from wifi hotspots. But the app doesn't allow users to connect to the VoIP network via cellular voice links, as they can with Truphone Anywhere, a service that the company introduced in May 2008. If it did, iPhone users could make their cheap overseas calls even when they weren't near hotspots, paying only for local cellular minutes plus Truphone's low international VoIP rates.