Slashdot Mirror
RIM Offering Free Voice Calling In Attempt to Remain Competitive
zacharye writes "In version 7, RIM has added a voice calling feature that will allow BBM users to speak to each other for free when connected to Wi-Fi networks. While similar third-party solutions like Viber exist and extend the free calling feature to cellular data connections, an integrated solution that will eventually be baked right into the BlackBerry OS offers clear advantages over third-party options. It also can be counted as an advantage for RIM’s platform over Android and iOS, at least until RIM’s rivals begin to roll out similar solutions."
It's hard to find a cell plan without unlimited minutes unless you're buying a minimal-use, no-frills line...in which case you won't get a BB anyway. Might as well give a corpse a gym membership to stay healthy.
I can see it being somewhat useful in corporate situations where you have many BB users - but you still need to have everyone on WiFi. Sorry RIM, find a better way to stay relevant.
The carriers probably won't care - much - given above but I can't image they will be thrilled about it either. Everyone will just bake the cost into the "blackberry data plan" anyway.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
So facetime and gtalk are just figments of my imagination?
Even with a teenager on our family cell plan, we never use up our monthly allocation of voice minutes. Now, if RIM could figure out a way to convert that voice to data bandwidth, then we might have something to talk about.
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
Only over wifi, so this isn't much of a feature. And it's only to other Blackberry users who also happen to be on wifi, making it even less useful. And in general, voice is on the decline which is why some carriers are moving to unlimited voice & tiered data. Personally I've had over 4,000 rollover minutes from AT&T for 3-4 years, and that's with many expiring each month and with my wife and I sharing their smallest plan (500 shared minutes/month).
So this is cool, but I can't imagine this will sway anyone's opinion about buying a Blackberry or not.
rooooar
*Disclaimer I work for Vonage*
The Vonage app allows you to call other app users over 3g/4g/Wifi for Android and iOS and make free calls to US numbers. So color me unimpressed.
Rumor is that internet browsing will also be free while on wifi, and will even support pandora streaming! You can use that wifi data in nearly unlimited ways!
Just want business customers wanted, lower sound quality and congestion issues they can't control!
No one on the planet WANTS VoIP over the Internet, it absolutely sucks. They only use it because some sales person or TV commercial convinced otherwise. When I can't tell within 5 seconds that you're on a VoIP connection, I'll change my mind, but thats not going to happen anytime soon.
Stop trying to produce more low quality crap to retain customers, thats EXACTLY what put you in the position you are in RIM.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
RIM did a great job for the time in which they really were market leaders.
Now, the market has moved on. The proprietary technologies of yesterday have open and Windows equivalents.
RIM needs to find a way to bring its unique interface, reliability and software experience to an open smartphone.
I think that smartphones are what they do well, and they should continue to make them, instead of hoping they can make a tablet that will keep them "relevant."
Do what you do. Do it well. Make it open, or Windows-based, because either one is a market already waiting.
Will this be a new form of rim to rim communication?
Surely it's a niche market at best.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
Do they?
Many of the Android ones I have dealt with offer calling over WiFi, but it still counts towards your minutes, even if it's going to someone on the same network, also on WiFi.
*Unless you use a third party app.
I read it as something only available between two BBM users, so it is basically Factime or Google Talk. In that case, RIM's two main rivals have had very good solutions in place for quite a while.
Ugh - this will do nothing to help RIM.
The only thing that I can imagine RIM doing to stay competitive is to license their Blackberry software while they still can. Dump (or severely reduce) the hardware and OS business, it's clear to everyone (and it should be to RIM) they can no longer compete with manufacturers offering Apple, Microsoft, and Android-based devices.
While RIM still has some foothold in the corporate managed mobile messaging arena, take that software and port it to Apple, Microsoft, and Android devices; allowing those devices to connect to BES servers. This will allow IT to have the manageability and security offered with Blackberry devices. It will allow RIM to survive as a company. However - if they do not make this move soon, it will be too late. The same manageability will become ubiquitous among competing devices, and any competitive advantage that RIM might have had will disappear forever.
-Turkey
It's hard to find a cell plan without unlimited minutes unless you're buying a minimal-use, no-frills line.
Yes - I think the carriers did this in response to skype on mobile devices gaining popularity. They jacked up the prices for all smartphone data plans and gave you basically unlimited calling.
It's the same thing for texting, iMessage on iOS gave you the ability to send messages to other iOS users over data, not SMS. So again they just baked unlimited SMS into the price for every smart phone plan.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This actually might be quite interesting if it provides more secure voice communications similar to BBM. Rather than poo-poo'ing on RIM again because it is in fashion, maybe it should be looked at as an alternative to cell communications that the Patriot Act seem to be able to stomp on without any consideration for the rights of citizens. If that is the case, I welcome the alternative.
Outside the US, it is very easy to get cheap contracts with limited voice time. RIM is actually expanding outside the US - I suspect some of their problems there are caused by the carrier monopoly. I'm amazed that US customers put up with the restrictions on the phone models they can use, and the inability to get a decent SIM-only contract.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Actually, BBM is the top selling point for BB phones in Latin America, more than email. Where I live "give me your PIN" is a catchphrase/joke and the junkie picking up the phone every 15 seconds is most likely engrossed in several BBM chats.
They've been raging and stamping their feet, because their bloated margins have been propped up by ripoff voice and text traffic charges, and criminal scams like international roaming charges. They wanted to avoid, at all costs, to be a "dumb pipe" where they'd have to live with fair and reasonable margins.
The chickens have come home to roost, the consumer wins, and the telcos get their long-coming, richly-deserved comeuppance.
Incorrect. Like this BBM thing, Google voice and video chat, and Facetime, are free as in free data. Google's solution even works on other platforms (like Nokia).
Mine is 200 min per phone, available as a pool, and 250 SMS; more than we need given iMessage and all other communication forms, and with unlimited data it's less than $50 per handset. The only thing is misses is tethering.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
And perhaps cell phone companies could apply lossy compression to the audio stream, so that they can carry more conversations on one frequency band, and fine-tune their codecs for voice so much that your "acoustic coupler" concept would become unworkable.
Make it open, or Windows-based, because either one is a market already waiting.
Since when have phones running Windows Phone sold in numbers even close to those of the iPhone or even a single major Android manufacturer, let alone the entire Android ecosystem?
Just not seeing the positive here I guess. Unlimited voice plans have been available on all major Telcos in the US, and they don't require WiFi.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
What does this mean? ...
The users can talk each other if they are connected on the same WiFi network? Don't think so.
The users can talk each other if the application sees a non-public IP? Don't think so either. Operators can provide you with non-public IP to be NATed as public.
Only over WiFI? Why? Why not doing that over any IP interface of the mobile handset?
That statement by RIM looks like: let's do something, whatever, to move the water. Then we'll see
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Considering RIM's small and declining market share hard to see how this helps.
That's true. However, much of what it is based on are tools derived from open source or desktop computing. I think over time this model will be less responsive than, say, a Linux-based model.
Windows would be a future option that would allow RIM to offload the OS portion of their product onto Microsoft, including maintenance. As to whether Windows phones sell, I don't know. I think I know one person who owns one and they seem to enjoy it.
indeed, GrooveIP uses Google voice to do it all seamlessly. I'm 100% satisified w/ it right now.
I'm wondering how long until Verizon freaks out about this...
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
Well, if you want free wifi voice calling from iPhone to iPhone, start FaceTime, and put your thumb over the camera.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Okay, my family is a bunch of luddites, I'm the only one with a cell phone. Brother would have one, but he's unemployed and had to give it up. Thus, all of my calls are to landlines, thus charged minutes. I do get the standard 'free weekends', and even with my small plan I always have excess minutes.
Unlike AC, I could see somebody 'trading down' plans if they're virtually always within range of wifi good enough for their voice. A number of the points close to me(such as the food court or bowling alley) are usually super-saturated to the point it's quicker and easier for me to use my cellular data than theirs.
I don't read AC A human right
Release a new product already.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
But they could do so much better by not buying RIM.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Too bad you posted as AC. Getting a SIP account is very handy.
I would much rather they worked with Microsoft to bring native Skype applications to their platform.
Bow before me, for I am root.
... at least until RIM’s rivals begin to roll out similar solutions.
Assuming RIM didn't file a patent for seamless and transparent calling over WiFi/VoIP when available.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
I live in Minneapolis and I was sooooooooooooo close to getting Republic Wireless. Beautiful business model, except that they will always be behind in the times with cell phone hardware. Takes them forever to develop their software or whatever, and by the time they release it, the phone is old news. For instance, look at the Motorola Defy XT, runs GB 2.3.7. Sooo 2010. Kind of pathetic, in the world of extreme phone customization we live in (flash a new ROM or kernel in no time), Republic Wireless can only issue 1 phone, and it will always be last year's model. With that said, I realize not everyone buys a phone because it has todays most blastingest fastest process with trilogigs of ram. Lots of people would be perfectly fine with a smartphone that runs android 2.3.7. I'm not that way, and I waited to see what their newest phone was, and when I found out, I bought a Blaze 4G and signed up for a popular $30/month unlimited 4G plan.
No trees were killed to send this message, but a great number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
I have a box at my house that signs into google voice to do VOIP. you can log into it (if i ever bothered to make the firewall work) with an iOS app and use that to make calls. This can call any phone endpoint, not just BlackBerries.
So, as listed over and over in this forum, there are several different ways to already do this. By baking it into BBM, they're both making it slightly easier (and harder, you ever try to remember a friend's BBM ID?) and slightly less useful - this is limited to the dwindling number of friends i'd have with BlackBerries and who also would bother to upgrade to this OS version.
This will maybe save a just a couple current users from jumping ship, as this may weigh very small into their mental calculations about if they should change. But it will not get new users, which is what RIM needs more.
Now the two remaining Blackberry customers can talk to each other for free...
Do they?
Many of the Android ones I have dealt with offer calling over WiFi, but it still counts towards your minutes, even if it's going to someone on the same network, also on WiFi.
*Unless you use a third party app.
Name the carrier in question please.
What you're describing is absolutely not the case with either Sprint, or T-Mobile (my only two reference points).
(* and yes, I'm talking about Google Talk, in both video and voice mode, which I use all the time)
Google Talk works by voice and video without adding minutes, Skype is often dinged for minutes (because it has per-carrier versions) and true SIP apps don't charge minutes either.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
I've seen this problem with Skype specifically as there are carrier-specific versions of it in Google Play, but never seen it with Google Talk or any SIP package.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)