Mobiboo.com – the UK’s first commercial VoIP WiFi network operator

Gosh!  Cover me in honey and call me gorgeous, the world’s first mobile VoIP WiFi company launched today – it’s called Mobiboo.  Here was me thinking that Truphone was the one to watch, eh?

So, right now, you can go over and order a VoIP WiFi phone from them and, so long as you’ve got an open wireless connection somewhere nearby, you can call other Mobiboo users for nada, or call me on T-Mobile for £0.15 a minute — that’s a good 25 pence cheaper (rates) than it costs me to call an Orange user via GSM!  (Or not, according to the Mobiboo site news, Three & T-Mobile have banned their customers from calling Mobiboo numbers…)

I had a look at their handsets. 

They’ve got a godawful looking one for £99 or a decent RAZR-esque one for £179.

I’m interested.  I’m in the buy zone potentially.

However my Vonage is that bad here that I doubt the Mobiboo service would be any better here in Billericay.  You never know, though.  I’ve no doubt it would be fine on services like The Cloud, which, incidentally is included with Mobiboo.  The Cloud have quite a lot of network coverage — 4,000 locations nationwide — and are meant to be building a London city wide wifi service so that could get rather interesting.

Incidentally, do a keyword search on the Mobiboo FAQ page for Vonage.  I wonder what their relationship is with them.

Back to reality though: I did a postcode lookup to see if there’s a hotspot near me.  Nothing.  The nearest one is 7 miles away. 

So, I think it’s interesting. I think it’s good that Mobiboo have released the service — I think it’s smart that I can call normal landline phones and they can call my Mobiboo number.   

But what about you?  Would you buy one? 

I’ve registered for the free account (good idea, that), but I’ve stopped short of buying a handset.  I will at some point to try it out.  But my experience of VoIP via handset from my place (excluding the likes of Skype and GoogleTalk) has been overwhelmingly crap to date.