To those who've actually compared Truphone, fring, Nimbuzz and PennyTel: which one is the most reliable and has the best sound quality? I'll be traveling out of the country next week and am trying to figure this out.
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Best VOIP reliability & sound quality?
- Thread starter acousticbiker
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Thanks. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, but I was soliciting opinions about iPhone VOIP app options.
I've used only Fring & Nimbuzz, with a Skype account, calling from US to Asian countries particularly Japan, Philippines, Vietnam & Korea.
Bear in mind that US, we have a great cable internet while in Asia some might have poor while some are decent.
I've experienced 2-3 second delay on Fring, no matter which country I call, but when I switched over to Nimbuzz it worked fine for me, I'd say milliseconds of lag, but it's still not as instant like calling on a landline.
Sound quality, definitely better on Nimbuzz, my other folks that reacted when I called them using Fring was they can't even barely hear me, some buzz/static sound was heard and frequent disconnections.
Over all, I'm satisfied with Nimbuzz. I only use it to call my Skype buddies which are all over Asia
Bear in mind that US, we have a great cable internet while in Asia some might have poor while some are decent.
I've experienced 2-3 second delay on Fring, no matter which country I call, but when I switched over to Nimbuzz it worked fine for me, I'd say milliseconds of lag, but it's still not as instant like calling on a landline.
Sound quality, definitely better on Nimbuzz, my other folks that reacted when I called them using Fring was they can't even barely hear me, some buzz/static sound was heard and frequent disconnections.
Over all, I'm satisfied with Nimbuzz. I only use it to call my Skype buddies which are all over Asia
Acousticbiker,
I use TruPhone when I am overseas. I bring my airport express to hook up in my hotel room. It works really well. I tried Fring but I didn't like the interface. TruPhone has a good layout and has an easy learning curve. Which ever way you go I would make sure you get everything up and working before you leave. Last thing you want to do is to try and set this up while overseas.
Also, if are getting a data plan and have a jailbroken phone you could download an app that allows you to use VoIP over the network. If you do that just be aware of your talk time. I think it was around 1mb for every 30sec. So it is really just for short quick calls.
But, in the end myself and my co-workers love it. It really helps me keep on touch with home and the others I travel with.
Hope that helps and enjoy your trip!
Aaron
Nimbuzz is miles better than fring when it comes to call quality. Buddy status is more reliable on Nimbuzz too. It's missing the important dial pad but hopefully they will address that soon. Truphone call quality is reasonable also, at least you can still carry on a conversation. PennyTel is worst of the bunch in my experince. Completely unusable for carrying on a simple phone conversation. Long tedious credit card verification process. I contacted their tech support about the poor call quality but after several exchanges they still won't admit there is a problem with their service and just gave me the run-around. Avoid at all cost.
I use Truphone and am very pleased with call quality and rates are reasonable too. I've all but given up on Skype without a dedicated client as Fring is a nice idea but hopelessly implemented. Nimbuzz is good and I used it a lot on my N95 but the iPhone client isn't good enough yet as it's missing the dial pad.
So for me, Truphone and I think they've just introduced some new cheaper tariffs too.
So for me, Truphone and I think they've just introduced some new cheaper tariffs too.
Penny tel doesn't work
Penny tel looks promising but now it just does not work,
I'm annoyed as I had to pre purchase $20 of credit but it's useless.
Penny tel looks promising but now it just does not work,
I'm annoyed as I had to pre purchase $20 of credit but it's useless.
nimbuzz
i use the skype client on nimbuzz and its sounds great and there is no delay, and skype has been around for a while so they have worked out the bugs over the years. now fring is ok but i noticed the is a delay and a few burps.
i use the skype client on nimbuzz and its sounds great and there is no delay, and skype has been around for a while so they have worked out the bugs over the years. now fring is ok but i noticed the is a delay and a few burps.
I wasnt' crazy about fring but it was the only one that would connect to my own pbxnsip ipbx running on a mac. Does Nimbuzz let you connect to your own IPBX or do you have to use their service? I am surprised there isn't a good softphone like counterpath x lite for the iphone that we can buy. I figured this would be one of the first apps on the store not the last.
I gave up on Fring almost immediately because of the long lag people here have talked about--it really isn't usable yet. I really like Nimbuzz a lot because you can use Skype and the call quality between US and UK has been really excellent. However, the interface leaves a lot to be desired--there is no keypad to dial Skype numbers for example; it only imports your Skype contact numbers (not names). Support is excellent--I got a helpful response to a question within 24 hours. Forget about Pennytel, which has the most frustrating, laborious and idiotic credit verification system--in the end I just gave up trying. Truphone looks promising, but until recently they charged 6 cents/minute, which is way out of line. Just the other day I noticed they have a much more reasonable plan--$4 a month I think it is then less than 2 cents/minute internationally. That makes them really competitive. The one time I tried using Truphone I was impressed with the call quality. iCall has had their app under review with Apple since mid-October. It looks brilliant, which may explain the very long delay in approval (AT&T?). They have said if the app isn't approved they will eventually release it anyway for jailbroken phones.