Nimbuzz launches mobile-mobile free calling

By Vivek | January 15th, 2007 at 11:55 pm ET         

Nimbuzz, the Netherlands based mobile IM and Voice startup, has finally launched a new release of its mobile client that enables mobile-mobile calls at local rates. Nimbuzz had lunched year with its mobile and PC clients that among other things let users chat with their Google Talk and MSN buddies from their mobile phones. Co-founded by Evert Jaap Lugt, CEO, and Martin Smink, COO, Nimbuzz had received an undisclosed amount of funding from Mangrove Capital Partners, who have previously invested in various companies including Skype and Quintura.

The mobile voice feature from Nimbuzz is available across more than 35 countries including US, Canada, UK, and Germany and supports more than 500 phones. In other words, with the Nimbuzz client installed on mobile phones on either end, you can make free international calls to people located in those 35 countries and end up paying just for your mobile minutes.

Also as part of this release Nimbuzz users can talk with their Google Talk and MSN / Windows Live Messenger from their mobile phone. Calls can be made you to your buddies on their mobile phones or on their PC. Nimbuzz has also made an important upgrade to its groups feature by enabling users to make group calls from their mobile phones. Users can dialup up to 5 Nimbuzz, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger contacts simultaneously. From the technology POV, Nimbuzz does a GSM connection to its local server in your country, and from there on converts the call to a VoIP connection from one of the it’s central switches located in Amsterdam, New York or Hong Kong.

Looking at the Google Talk implementation on Blackberry, while logged into GTalk you can check your email or work on other applications without quitting GTalk or getting logged out. However with Nimbuzz, you have to have the mobile app running and be on the top to make sure people can see you online and call you. To overcome this issue, Nimbuzz has implemented a Buzz feature that vibrates your phone twice, when you are offline, to indicate that your friend wants to get in touch with you. Still I think it will be better if they can deliver the GTalk like functionality to avoid confusing users.

With this release, our ever growing list of startups enabling free or near free mobile calling now includes Nimbuzz, Fring, Truphone, Jajah, Rebtel, Mino, Talkster, and Talkonaut. 

Links:
Nimbuzz