UK retail giant Tesco launches Freshtel mobile VoIP service - UPDATED

by Stuart Corner

Tuesday, 02 September 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! The telecoms arm of UK retailing giant Tesco has launched a mobile VoIP service developed by Australian VoIP company, Freshtel (ASX FRE) that allows customers to use their own wireless internet connection or a public WiFi hotspot with their existing mobile phone and mobile number to make calls. Freshtel says an Australian launch is "imminent". This is the first commercial rollout of the Freshtel technology, announced last November after several years of development and, Freshtel says, follows a successful trial with UK customers. However it is a good few months behind schedule. When Freshtel announced the service it said that Tesco would launch it early in 2008. Freshtel said in March 2008 that it would launch a service in Australia with a partner before the end of 2008. CEO Rhonda O'Donnell told iTWire that the launch was now imminent, but would not reveal any details of the partner, or confirm that a partner would be involved. Tesco is a long-standing partner of Freshtel. It has been selling the Freshtel white-label fixed line VoIP service for several years and holds a six percent stake in the company, bought in late 2006 for $12.3m. According to Freshtel, Tesco Telecoms has paid Freshtel a licence fee to fund the final stages of product development and customer trials and has now made the Tesco TalkWifi application available for download on its website. It will support the launch with a public relations campaign and will promote the product on its website and through direct marketing channels. Calls and texts made using Tesco TalkWifi are free to other TalkWifi customers and calls to other mobiles, landlines and international numbers can be substantially cheaper than standard rates, according to Freshtel. It claims that the service is very easy to activate and use. "The new application takes just minutes to download onto a WiFi enabled mobile handset...When [installation is] completed, the product automatically routes calls over the selected WiFi network, as this is the cheapest route for the call...Customers can also use some public WiFi areas, as long as they have the necessary access rights. The mobile phone will automatically revert to the mobile network if the caller is outside a WiFi area." CONTINUED << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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