Nimbuzz: mobile VoIP for (almost) everybody

Written on May 13, 2008 – 1:44 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

The guys from Skype have a bad day today, as two mobile industry experts from a Dutch town called Rotterdam launched a mobile application that brings free mobile VoIP calling to 500 hundred different types of mobile phones. Wow! This means that users can make calls around 50 countries and just pay for their local data usage. So you’d better use a flat-rate data plan.

The new Nimbuzz mobile VoIP application works worldwide on Nokia Symbian Series 60 devices when connected using a 3G or Wifi network - with a Windows Mobile offering for release in June. For GPRS/EDGE connections, or when using Java-enabled phones, Nimbuzz also offers its “hybrid-VoIP” solution, which counts for the 50 countries.

$Co-editors Boris and Patrick at Nimbuzz\'s HQ in Rotterdam$
Co-editors Boris and Patrick at Nimbuzz’s HQ in Rotterdam

Although the Skype-bashing part is the most interesting, I gladly tell you that Nimbuzz’s app also includes conference calling, instant messaging, chat and group chat, and photo and file sending across multiple IM communities, including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo!, AIM, Jabber and ICQ, plus 23 social networks, including Facebook and Myspace. Founder Evert Jaap Lugt received VC and strategic funding since 2006 by Mangrove Capital Partners (Skype investor), Naspers/MIH (Tencent, Mail.ru, Gadu-Gadu, Mweb, Sanook, Tradus) and Holtzbrinck (StudiVZ).

My expectation that for a while, this service will remain a niche thing - they now have 500,000 beta users -, yet after some enthusiastic “you gotta try this” conversations, the masses might pick it up. I know that for a lot of people downloading and installing a mobile app is still little too much to ask, but when Nimbuzz users tell them they can call for free, they’ll probably give it a shot.

The most interesting question here is: what will Skype do? Launch a similar new-and-improved service? Might Nimbuzz become really successful and Skype’s mother company eBay take the advice of their ‘Disruptive Innovator’ Rolf Skyberg - make Skype the third pillar in the eBay empire -, then an acquisition could be in sight. Don’t you also just love to speculate about the next (mobile) web?

I hope you like that post!

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mobile, Nimbuzz, rotterdam, skype, Voice over Internet Protocol, voip, Windows Mobile

About the author: Ernst-Jan is a blogger and journalist, who previously worked in New York to cover news at the United Nations. Next to writing, he's also a singer in the band Christina Five.

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By Vitor Domingos on May 13, 2008

There’s a lot mobile operators in Europe that restrict VoIP on their networks - 3G and Wifi included, and that’s a huge problem.

Reply
By Travis Choma on May 13, 2008

I’ve been using Truphone on one of my S60’s for some months now and it works great for VoIP. You also get local calling rates in all the different countries. Is Nimbuzz offering anything new that Truphone doesn’t in terms of VoIP(besides the fact that Nimbuzz also supports instant messages)? What would be the argument for switching from Truphone to Nimbuzz?

Reply
By David Petherick on May 13, 2008

T-Mobile in the UK blocks access to the nimbuzz web site (even to the download subdomain link) as it’s ‘rated 18′ by T-Mobile, and you need to unlock by flashing your credit card to T-Mobile to prove you are an adult. I suspect they are trying to protect revenue rather than protect minors.

Reply
By Bram de Leeuw on May 14, 2008

I don’t get why Skype doesn’t offer a client for use at S60 equipped phones. They do have a mobile client for phones that run Win Mobile but not for symbian based phones.
I love Skype but I can’t use it on my phone. That’s why I use Fring, because it offers me the skype features (and more, like incorporating MSN and other IM services).

Personally I think it is a very big mistake of Skype that they don’t support symbian phones.

Oh and how will Nimbuzz be different from Fring?

Reply
By Ernst-Jan Pfauth on May 14, 2008

So Fring and Truphone offer the same services, and sometimes even more (like Fring’s iPhone client). I think though that Nimbuzz is doing a good job by attracting the larger public. It seems like they’ve purely focused on making it as accessible as possible. Hence the 500 phones support.

Reply

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