Truphone has demonstrated the firstvoice over IPWi-Fi call using
theAppleiPhone.
Truphone chief executive officer James Tagg made the call at the
DEMOfall 07 show in San Diego yesterday.
The VoIP software company also gave a demonstration of an
application that mashes up social networking site Facebook and
traditional telephony.
Any Facebook user will be able to click on a friend's Truphone
"Call Me" button, and a free phone call will be initiated to
whichever phone their friend has chosen.
This will mean free calls to real phones for everyone in the
Facebook community.
Many people have called for true VoIP calling on
Apple's iPhone. Truphone has proved it is possible using the
iPhone's built-in Wi-Fi capability.
Truphone's demonstration comprised of two iPhones connected to
Wi-Fi on the DEMOfall 07 stage.
A VoIP call was initiated from one handset, routed via Wi-Fi and
the internet to Truphone's servers, and then back again to the
Wi-Fi access point and onwards to the destination handset≠- a 100%
IP phone call.
The demonstration was not a commercial launch of Truphone on the
iPhone.
Truphone does not need to unlock the iPhone Sim in order to
operate its service for the iPhone.
AT&T is the sole mobile carrier for the iPhone in the US,
and O2 was recently announced as the sole UK iPhone carrier for
when the iPhone launches here in November.
At least two carriers in the UK have blocked Truphone from
working on the handsets they sell.