Freshtel and Tesco make big noise at Wireless08

SADLY THE biggest story at the Wireless08 show in London today was a joint announcement from Tescos and Freshtel. You've guessed it. Yet another low cost mobile VoIP network.

The USP for this particular offering is that unlike its major rivals, you don't need to have a completely new number. You can use your existing cellular telephone number.

Apart from that Freshtel offers the usual stuff like free calls between members and unlimited messages between participants. Usefully it can automatically swap between Wi-fi and GSM depending on what's available.

The INQ tried to get a quote out of Truphone's CEO, James Tagg, on how he viewed Freshtel. All he'd say was "wait until May 28^th for our own announcement." Oh, well.

If you want to try it, all that's needed is to send the word 'Talk' to 86688. That sends a WAP Push message with the built-in URL and, hey presto, you can download the Freshtel app.

Before you do, read the small print. Currently the software will only work on four Nokia handsets: - the N95, N81, E65 and the E51. Not even an E61.

The upshot was the INQ tried it with a Nokia N95 and surprise, surprise it came up with an installation error message. That's probably whyTesco and Freshtel still describe it as a trial.

It kind of makes a nonsense of the quote from Tesco's head of internet phone, Anna Boukovskaia, who claimed that with Freshtel, "We've a proven track record of harnessing internet technology to deliver fantastic savings on landline calls for customers."

Shame the pair don't seem to have done their homework with real mobile phones in the real world. µ