Truphone still won't talk to Skype

TECHIE INVENTOR Techie inventor James Tagg’s latest creation –Truphone- makes mobile phone operators profits disappear.

They all laughed at him at first, then jeered. But now they’ve decided they like him and want him to help get their profits back. Wherever they are.

Truphone, as we reported here, gives you the option to add voice calls over the Internet to your existing mobile phone service. The problem is, few people fancy it, because it’s fiddly, especially if you’re in a foreign hotspot. But Truphone has hired systems integrator Quiconnect to automate it to the point even I could use it.

“The potential is there for services and content over public wifi and Wimax, but it needed to be more accessible,” Tagg told The INQUIRER from his riverside lair at London Bridge. “We want to give Truphone broad global reach without involving users in complex operator relationships. We don’t charge you for a voice call until you are actually connected, so we’re making connection as quick as possible.”

However, Truphone is still not talking to Skype. There’s no SIP interface. The two leading lights in opening up internet telephony can’t talk to each other! There’s irony.

But the mobile operators – who initially shunned Truphone – are now working out how they can be friends.

Analyst Onworld predicts the mobile VoIP market will grow from 480,000 users now to 70.6 million in the next four years. So there’s massive potential. Mobile wifi is a much better prospect for delivering content too. It’s much quicker than 3G at setting up sessions, which makes it better for the small stuff. And it’s far more efficient at deliveirng bigger items, like videos, onto your handset. The only thing 3G is really suited for is mid-sized application files.

“Its perfect for downloading our software onto your handset,” says Tagg. Which, ironically, could be the last time you ever use 3G for content.

So, you’re eroding the mobile phone industry’s voice revenues, and now you’re neutralising any arguments for content delivery. You’re messing with the big boys, Mr Tagg. Aren’t you worried they might have you bumped off? “They’ve always been amazingly polite to me, and now they can’t afford to ignore this market,” says Tagg. “We’re talking to all the operators to see how we can work together.”

Perhaps he can help them find their missing billions. µ