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Port Elizabeth - The number of applications that enable people to make and receive cellular calls over the internet are increasing, as well as the popularity and the number of people who are starting to use them.
These applications route voice calls through your data package – using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology – at a fraction of the cost of a normal telephone call. The cost is so low that most people believe it is totally free.
There are no fewer than eight applications for VoIP calls available: Google Talk, Skype, Viber, Tango, Nimbuzz, Fring and Facetime, while First National Bank offers their clients FNB Connect Talk. BlackBerry is set to launch its BBM Voice application within the next few weeks.
Some of these are quite large applications more suitable to computers, although most modern smartphones and tablets are capable of using them as well.
Skype is well known and many people already use it to chat to family and friends abroad, usually from a computer with a video camera, because it is much cheaper than a telephone call. Newer tablets have made Skype and similar applications more portable.
The newer applications, such as Viber, were specifically developed for smaller phones and similar devices. The applications are small and easy to download and can be used on any cellular telephone that can access the internet.
These products are becoming increasingly popular because of the extremely low cost of calls.
On packages that include internet connectivity, the user might even believe that his calls are free. And they are free when you connect with your tablet or phone while sitting in your favourite coffee shop and utilising their internet access, and not your own.
The payment of these services is somewhat different to a regular telephone call between two cellular phones.
Firstly, both parties must install the same application to be able to make and receive calls. This is similar to the web-based message services like BlackBerry and Whatsapp that have replaced messages sent by more expensive SMS messaging.
After installation, most of the VoIP services will immediately scan through your contact list on your phone and add all your friends who have the same application.
A second difference is that these applications use data bytes from both users. In the case of a normal cellular call, only the person who initiates the call pays for the call. That is why parents need to call their teenage children, because the kids spend all of their airtime calling their friends.
VoIP calls need both parties to upload data to the internet (when you talk) and download data (when you listen). So, both parties need to have data bundles available. As such, both parties pay for the telephone call.
But it is dirt cheap.
In answer to an enquiry about how much data these calls use, a member of the team that developed Viber said that the application utilises 240 kilobyte (KB) worth of data per minute to upload and download data.
This means that a four-minute conversation with my friend on Viber will cost us both 1 megabyte (MB) worth of data. A note to the technical-minded people: I rounded the figures off; a MB is actually equal to 1 024 KB.
A survey of cellular service providers show that data bundles cost around R69 for a package that offers 1 gigabyte (GB) data and R99 for 2GB.
At the higher rate of the smaller package, a four- minute call will cost each party less than 1MB at cost of 6.9c each – equal to less than 1.8c per minute at each end of the call. The effective price of a VoIP call on a 2GB package at R99 works out at less than 1.24c per minute for each participant.
These paltry amounts compare to rates of between 99c to as much as R3 per minute for traditional cellular calls, depending on the network and specific package. And there is no extra charge to connect from one cellular network to another.
These figures are astounding, if there are no other hidden costs involved.
- Fin24
*After chasing money on the JSE for 15 years, Adriaan Kruger is now living a relaxed lifestyle in Wilderness and lectures economics part-time at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Views expressed are his own.
These applications route voice calls through your data package – using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology – at a fraction of the cost of a normal telephone call. The cost is so low that most people believe it is totally free.
There are no fewer than eight applications for VoIP calls available: Google Talk, Skype, Viber, Tango, Nimbuzz, Fring and Facetime, while First National Bank offers their clients FNB Connect Talk. BlackBerry is set to launch its BBM Voice application within the next few weeks.
Some of these are quite large applications more suitable to computers, although most modern smartphones and tablets are capable of using them as well.
Skype is well known and many people already use it to chat to family and friends abroad, usually from a computer with a video camera, because it is much cheaper than a telephone call. Newer tablets have made Skype and similar applications more portable.
The newer applications, such as Viber, were specifically developed for smaller phones and similar devices. The applications are small and easy to download and can be used on any cellular telephone that can access the internet.
These products are becoming increasingly popular because of the extremely low cost of calls.
On packages that include internet connectivity, the user might even believe that his calls are free. And they are free when you connect with your tablet or phone while sitting in your favourite coffee shop and utilising their internet access, and not your own.
The payment of these services is somewhat different to a regular telephone call between two cellular phones.
Firstly, both parties must install the same application to be able to make and receive calls. This is similar to the web-based message services like BlackBerry and Whatsapp that have replaced messages sent by more expensive SMS messaging.
After installation, most of the VoIP services will immediately scan through your contact list on your phone and add all your friends who have the same application.
A second difference is that these applications use data bytes from both users. In the case of a normal cellular call, only the person who initiates the call pays for the call. That is why parents need to call their teenage children, because the kids spend all of their airtime calling their friends.
VoIP calls need both parties to upload data to the internet (when you talk) and download data (when you listen). So, both parties need to have data bundles available. As such, both parties pay for the telephone call.
But it is dirt cheap.
In answer to an enquiry about how much data these calls use, a member of the team that developed Viber said that the application utilises 240 kilobyte (KB) worth of data per minute to upload and download data.
This means that a four-minute conversation with my friend on Viber will cost us both 1 megabyte (MB) worth of data. A note to the technical-minded people: I rounded the figures off; a MB is actually equal to 1 024 KB.
A survey of cellular service providers show that data bundles cost around R69 for a package that offers 1 gigabyte (GB) data and R99 for 2GB.
At the higher rate of the smaller package, a four- minute call will cost each party less than 1MB at cost of 6.9c each – equal to less than 1.8c per minute at each end of the call. The effective price of a VoIP call on a 2GB package at R99 works out at less than 1.24c per minute for each participant.
These paltry amounts compare to rates of between 99c to as much as R3 per minute for traditional cellular calls, depending on the network and specific package. And there is no extra charge to connect from one cellular network to another.
These figures are astounding, if there are no other hidden costs involved.
- Fin24
*After chasing money on the JSE for 15 years, Adriaan Kruger is now living a relaxed lifestyle in Wilderness and lectures economics part-time at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Views expressed are his own.
