T-Mobile’s Bobsled and other Web voice
services could take a big bite out of wireless carriers’ profits – and
consumers could ultimately benefit.
Savvy phone consumers can keep their
voice-minute needs to a minimum by taking advantage of “over-the-top” services,
which provide voice, video, messaging, and more via you device’s Internet data
connection, for free or for much less than standard voice-minute plans charge.
You can save even more by using an OTT service through your device’s Wi-Fi
connection, since Wi-Fi services are much less expensive than mobile networks
are for high-bandwidth applications like video chat.
If you use an OTT service over your
device’s regular wireless data connection, you need to pay attention, because
it could chew up more data than you intended, incurring over-age charges and
eliminating any cost savings.
Skype, FaceTime, and Bobsled
Two of the best-known over-the-top services
are Skype and Apple’s FaceTime. Skype is an app that provides free calling,
video chat, and messaging between Skype users, typically on desktop or laptop
PCs, and can make calls to regular phones for a cost. It is also available for
iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, though with some limitations; Skype’s mobile
implementation require some user gymnastics to set up, as well.
T-Mobile’s
Bobsled lets you call regular phones for tree
FaceTime lets owners of Apple products
conduct video chat sessions with one another. But until Apple’s iOS 6 operating
system ships this fall, FaceTime will work only over Wi-Fi.
A more recent option is Bobsled, which
T-Mobile originally launched as a way to initiate calls from a Facebook page.
Bobsled has since morphed into a full-features Internet voice app for Android
and iOS, but not or Windows Phone and BlackBerry. All Bobsled calls are free,
and the service’s Facebook integration (such as the ability to leave voice
messages on friends’ Facebook walls) may be of considerable interest to people
who spend most of their online time on Facebook.
T-Mobile USA says that the Bobsled service
has attracted 2 million users, who have made more than 10 million calls since
the app’s debut in April 2011 – 80 percent of them to numbers outside the
United States. T-Mobile also notes that 95 percent of Bobsled’s users aren’t
T-Mobile customers.
Video chat from Tango, OoVoo
Another area attracting over-the-top
innovation is video chat, where two or more people use mobile phones or desktop
connections to have a virtual-reality interaction. One service in this market
is Tango, which debuted in autumn 2010 and claims 45 million registered users.
You
can set up Tango with just a name and a phone number
You can set up Tango with just a name and a
phone number. Another appealing feature is the ability to turn off the video in
midcall. Tango works over cellular connections and Wi-Fi, and offers client
software for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices, and for PCs.
The rival OoVoo video char service says it
has an installed base of 46 million users. It lets up to 12 people participate
in a group video chat. OoVoo offers a free version, a premium version ($30 per
year or $3 per month), and a new Facebook app. The premium version eliminates
ads, allows screen sharing, and has “priority support,” OoVoo says.
Can carriers compete in OTT?
Eventually the major wireless carriers may
give up on their voice and messaging cash cows and try to compete on features.
An expected shift in phone billing occurred in late June, when Verizon unveiled
its first attempt at so-called family plans, which allow users to bundle
multiple devices together under a single data-services contract.
Though the family-plan approach cuts the
costs of separate voice and messaging plans, it doesn’t result in savings for
every user. Nor does it match the flexibility of video or voice chat services
that are portable across multiple platforms and work with a single username.
We may have to wait several years for
victors to emerge in the over-the-top marketplace, or perhaps we’ll be stuck
with a mixed bag of similar but incompatible offerings. I haven’t even
mentioned the OTT services available from voice providers such as Vonage and
device manufacturers like Samsung.
