Which is better Truphone or Fring? Neither? Opinions wanted

Question

Level 3

671 points

Which is better Truphone or Fring? Neither? Opinions wanted

My husband and I travel overseas periodically. We like to stay in touch with adult kids, one of who has an iPhone. Not a lot of talking, just periodic sort of "we're here, all is well. How are you?"

It looks as if some sort of voip plan would save a lot of money over at&t's international rates. I have been looking at Truphone and Fring. Is one better than the other? Do they do sms? Pros? Cons? Suggestions?

All comments/advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

iMac 17In 1.25Ghz, 1 gig ram, Mac OS X (10.5.6), iPhone 3G, iPod nano, shuffle

Posted on Jan 16, 2009 5:03 AM

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Answer 1

tokatta

Level 3

869 points

Jan 16, 2009 7:13 AM in response to Jane C

Fring works OK. Keep in mind that it will only work over WiFi, so you need to find a hotspot first. If you can find a hotspot though, you can send an email.

If you want to do VOIP, then you need a VOIP account/server that you can access. You can't just fire up Fring or some other app and magically do VOIP. Fring can connect to Skype, so if you set up Skype on a PC (free) and fund it for VOIP calls, that will cover you for very cheap - but again you need a hotspot.

McDonalds in London had free Wifi as does any Apple store. VOIP over WiFi has latency and jitter. To the point where I just wound up sending emails to my wife.

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Answer 2

Jane C Author

Level 3

671 points

Jan 17, 2009 7:16 AM in response to tokatta

Thank you very much. So, in a free wifi spot I can send email. Would text messaging be free as well if there is free wifi?

Sorry about the dumb questions, but better to just ask dumb questions than get a surprise outrageous phone bill.
Thanks again.

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Answer 3

jlindh

Level 2

270 points

Jan 17, 2009 8:21 AM in response to Jane C

Text messaging is a phone function, not an internet function. Why not just get a data package from AT&T for the time you'll be overseas. Be careful with the maps function though, it uses a lot of GB. If you reset the usage when you leave the US, you can keep track of your usage on whichever data package you buy.

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Answer 4

Jane C Author

Level 3

671 points

Jan 17, 2009 8:29 AM in response to jlindh

Ahh, I understand. I had not been thinking in terms of phone vs internet functions. Thanks for clarifying that.
You are most likely right, that just springing for the AT&T pkg for international is the best/easiest. Then I would spend less time worrying.
Thanks for the idea of resetting the usage. I might well not have thought of that.
Thanks again.
Jane

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Answer 5

icebike

Level 3

740 points

Jan 17, 2009 2:01 PM in response to Jane C

Fring supports text messaging as well as voice. There are twitter applications out there as well. The free GOOGLE application supports Google Talk (which is text chat only on the iphone I believe).

SKYPE has an unlimited world calling plan for about 10 bucks.
http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/subscriptions/#uscaSubscriptionTab
You only need this if you want to call land lines.

Skype to Skype (Via Fring) is free of course. So is Fring to Fring, without a skype account.

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Answer 6

Plazby

Level 1

0 points

Jan 19, 2009 3:05 PM in response to Jane C

Both are a bit awkward - Truphone is spotty on quality and you still worry about minute-by-minute charges. Fring is hit or miss. I'm psyched to try DeFi when they hit the App store with their unlimited global voice service. Should be the same $40 a month with unlimited service for DeFi Global Access that they currently provide for the Nokia smartphones. DeFi said they'd be supporting Apple very soon. Send a note to DeFi-iphone@defimobile.com according to the last DeFi press release.

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