How do you find Truphone?

By on March 12, 2008 in News

I’m a big fan of the Truphone offering. I buy it — I buy the concept behind the service. 3G and WiFi represents a good medium for calling.

The on-handset deployment is phenomenally well implemented (as best you can on Symbian, I suspect).

The service works nicely.

There’s only one person I know who uses it like no tomorrow, though.

That’s Jeb, from Brilliant Expos. Jeb uses Truphone all day, all night. Jeb cites one of the key reasons for doing so, apart from his support of everything mobile (he’s a big mobile fan), is price. Truphone offers some really competitive rates. I’m not sure how they’re able to make cash — if any — at these rates though.

Switch off the rates and Jeb, a big international caller, will (I suspect) have to look elsewhere. I don’t quite know if the service itself is compelling enough to keep his attention.

I’ve got an account. I used it a few times. I just… I find it quite difficult to remember to use it. For the longest time, my internet connection here in the UK was so shit that I couldn’t even use Skype on it, let alone consider trying out Truphone.

Then I’ve been swapping between all sorts of different handsets, most of which haven’t been Truphone compatible.

The team — the people I’ve come across — are some of the best in the business — talented, friendly, capable.

So here’s my question: How do you use Truphone? What are your experiences?

If you haven’t actually tried it, do me a favour, sign-up (it’s free, actually you get 2 pounds calling credit!) and check it out and knock me over your thoughts?

About Ewan

Ewan is Founder and Editor of Mobile Industry Review. He writes about a wide variety of industry issues and is usually active on Twitter most days. You can read more about him or reach him with these details.
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  • http://www.symbian-guru.com Ricky

    I used Truphone on my N81 8GB at Nokia World 2007 to keep in touch with my fiance right from the show floor, with no SIM. I’ve also been seriously intending to load it up on my N95 to call overseas, but simply haven’t yet. :-\

    Ricky’s last blog post..N95-3 And Slingbox Solo For $549

  • http://www.TopMobile20.com Jeb

    Like Ewan said, I am a Truphone user and honestly an evangelist. I use them as much as I can. I won’t say they don’t have a few places they could shine a little brighter but as a whole they provide a fantastic service. I am concerned about what will happen now that they plan on charging for the service. Will the general public think it’s worth while to use them? Will you use them? Will you actually pay your mobile bill and on top of that go out and pay Truphone for additional minutes? Don’t get me wrong their rates are comparable with the rates you pay your mobile operator. But the big question for Truphone is will you pay them in addition to your mobile operator?

  • Pingback: How do you plan on using Truphone?

  • http://www.sevendotzero.com Jonathan Jensen

    I’m a big fan of Truphone. The client is great – I use it on a Nokia E65. The free calls to 40 countries has been a fantastic beta promotion & Truzone looks pretty good. I’d like to see a subscription tariff for unlimited calls to 40 destinations (or whatever) going forward.

    As well as using Truphone over WiFi I’ve also used it over 3G. Again works well although the battery takes a bit of a hit.

    Also worth noting that technical support both via email & their support forums is excellent – something often sadly lacking.

  • http://manchesterbus.typepad.com Martin

    Truphone’s ace although not that necessary most of the time since I rarely use all my inclusive minutes/texts every month. It’ll be essential in Japan this summer though. Without mobile-based VoIP in a non-GSM country I’d be out of contact for two weeks!

    Martin’s last blog post..Why we need a ‘techno revolution’ in transport info

  • http://www.maxroam.com Sean O’Mahony

    It might seem strange but I actually use Truphone a lot. In North America GSM coverage can be horrible. In Vancouver, where I “occasionally” live, my office is in the basement of my house. Depending on solar flares, the wind and how I stand I can only get a decent GSM signal 5% of the time.

    I plug all my numbers (MAXroam, Truphone and Fido) through GrandCentral so it doesn’t matter what number you call me on I’ll still ignore it ;-)

    As a result I use Truphone over my home Wi-Fi for nearly all my calls. In February, for example, I consumed XX minutes. The voice quality is usually much better than I get on the GSM network.

    I use it on an E51. A lovely little business phone that I highly recommend.

    When I’ traveling though I rarely use Truphone. I use MAXroam — not for the obvious reason that I work for Cubic. Primarily for convenience. I have my handset with me all the time, I don’t always have access to 3G or Wi-Fi and MAXroam rates are low enough that I don’t have to think about killing myself with the cost.

    The combination of the three services (MAXroam, Truphone and GrandCentral) really is a “killer ap”.

  • http://www.smstextnews.com/category/ben_smith Ben Smith

    @Jeb: Actually, I might. Thinking about going PAYG for one of my handsets now 3 offer unlimited data on those tariffs to so there’d be no wasted inclusive calls…

    Ben Smith’s last blog post..My other phone(s) shame?

  • http://jared.eldredge.googlepages.com Jared

    i’ve been using truphone since july ’07 – fantastic service. but i dont see why you need to “remember” to use it – i just have all my calls default to VoIP on my n95… so i dial a number, press the green button and if i’m near a wifi hotspot it goes over wifi, else it goes over gsm.

    sadly, i dont make a lot of international calls – and so i’m more interested in using truphone for calls within my country (usa). that being said, up till recently all calls to mobile or landlines in the us were free of charge (zip, zilch, nada, free). since i was an early adopter, that free offer will lst just a bit longer for me (new signups can only use the newrates, old signup will migrate to the new reates when they want to, but at the latest the end of june, or july – cant recall which).

    after that date calls to, say, the local pizza shop, will cost me about $0.06 USD. thats not too expensive, but not cheap enough to compete with large minute packages from my gsm provider.

    so, by the end of july the only time i see myself using truphone is when i’m out of the country, or when my friends are. this just isn’t common enough for my to consider myself a truphone user any longer (but surely will save me some $$$ when the time comes)

    for the curious: truphone audio quality is the best of VoIP i’ve ever heard. beats gizmo by a long shot, in case you were scared off by them. in fact, i dont think you could tell the difference, were i to call you from truphone or my gsm. perhaps, in the right environment, truphone may sound better than my gsm provider’s service. i’ve still never been able to place a call using EDGE or 3G (tried EDGE in usa on AT&T – and 3G in serbia using mt:s)

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