This week has seen a number of newsworthy headlines about the iPhone, new releases in new countries, and now the ability to use VoIP technology on your iPhone. A London based company says it can bring mobile VoIP at a low cost through contact management services such as Skype to the iPhone.

According to Fring, the firm presenting the new ability, has a VoIP client that can integrate with various VoIP networks like Skype, and the client is now available for the iPhone. The mobile application is now publicly available and allows users to talk, chat, and interact with other Fring members, in a Fring community, as well as all other online communities using the iPhones Wi-Fi connection.

The pre-release of the software will allow iPhone owners to explore the VoIP application, and the Fring software, and will be able to provide feedback to Fring on there likes and dislikes. Fring plans on a full release version later in the year.

Users with the pre-release version will be able to make free and low cost calls over Wi-Fi and use instant messaging. When the iPhone user logs into Fring, it will create a integrated contact list from the phone owners selected communities, like MSN, Yahoo, Skype, AIM, etc.

Fring started out in February of 2007 as a mobile client for just Skype, but has since increased its offerings with the other communities. The VoIP client is optimized for the 3G wireless network. Along with the the iPhone, Fring also runs on all Nokia Symbian Series 60 devices, Sony Ericsson UIQ Smartphones and Windows Mobile devices as well.

Feedback so far has been slightly mixed, with standard pre-release complaints. It appears Fring may still have a bit of work to do before this becomes a viable application for iPhone users, however once it is worked out and functioning at its full potential, it will make life much easier for those users who prefer VoIP. One positive review came from an online Tech blogger, "Finally. [I've] been using this on my Nokia, now finally on the iPhone. Thanks a lot but it takes a very long time to log on, also it would be much nicer if you could see your contacts by service." That commenter also recommended including an options tab to customize the settings and enabling Skype to run on GPRS/EDGE wireless networks.

Learn more about this author, Jedediah Hunt.
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