Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Any experince with Truphone?

GuyInTheBack

GuyInTheBack

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 2, 2008
74
1
For those who don't know, truphone is a voice over ip application that can be downloaded unto the iphone and is customized to work with it.

Now I havent bought an iphone yet (if I do it will undoubtedly be an unlocked one) and the main reason why I'm considering burying one is because of truphone.

I'm about to go off to college in the states (I'm canadian) and would like a cheap way of staying in touch with my friends and family. (And international plans are freaking brutal).

So my questions are:
- How well has truphone worked for you?
- Is it better on the 3G than on the old ones?

** Is it possible to ONLY use truphone without a plan? Can you establish it in a way as to have a receiving number and do all your incoming/outgoing telephone calls through it?

I think I would still end up saving money.

Thanks in advance! :)
 
from what i read on the itunes store they say you have to pay by the minute white is 6cents per minute which is more expensive then a regular phone call they said. what really needs to happen is skype needs to make a app.!
 
I used Truphone just today. I am from the UK and am currently holidaying in France.

Easy to use and set up an account and they give you credit on opening an account for free.

You cannot, as yet receive a phone call using the truphone app, that is for Symbian OS's only right now unfortunately, but i believe they hope to add this functionality in the future.

You can only use the app over WiFi as Apple will not allow you to use the cellular data connection for carrier protection.

Hope this helps.
 
It is alright, just really expensive. iCall is supposed to be out any time now, and they offer free US/Canada calling as well as the ability to switch a GSM call over mid-call. I can't figure out how to use Truphone right now, since I exchanged my iPhone and I can't re-sign up with the same phone number.. need to log in somehow.

I'm hoping for Skype with SkypeIn, though. That or an AT&T femtocell box.. No cell phone signal at home is the worst.
 
Truphone in the UK

sparkyms said:
I used Truphone just today. I am from the UK and am currently holidaying in France.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Sparkyms, I am also in the UK and considering seriously getting Truphone.

One question though which bothers me: when you call somebody, does that person see your usual phone number appearing on their side or do they see a different phone number ?

Thanks for your input on this...

Btw, being French, I can only thank you for spending your holidays in our country ! :)

W.
 
the calls are massively overpriced - landline calls within Switzerland are much cheaper than using Truphone. It's ok for trips but I'm really looking forward to iCall...
 
Terwal said:
Sparkyms, I am also in the UK and considering seriously getting Truphone.

One question though which bothers me: when you call somebody, does that person see your usual phone number appearing on their side or do they see a different phone number ?

Thanks for your input on this...

Btw, being French, I can only thank you for spending your holidays in our country ! :)

W.
Click to expand...


Yes, they see the your usual phone number appear on their side. Only on the Symbian OS version are you assigned a separate phone number.

And you don't need to thank me, it's lovely here down in the Dordogne :)
 
I used it in the States to call Denmark. Very easy to set up and use. The clarity was quite good. For me, it was much cheaper than using my landline. The 30 cents a minute to cell phones makes it not that viable, since I know some of my friends overseas only have cell lines. Still, it suits a purpose.
 
mine truphone installed very well.

created an account and now....

it clicks the number but.. it doesn't call, don't kknow why
 
rioja said:
lowering prices for calls in North America announced here: http://www.truphone.com/pricing/usa_canada_special.html

I gave up on Truphone back in June because of their drastic increase in pricing. But might give them another go now.
Click to expand...

If it weren't for having to use those 1000 minutes within 30 days, I'd jump on that deal.

I tried out truphone today, and was a little confused by the results. I called my girlfriend on her cell phone, which should have been 30 cents a minute, but only got billed at the 6 cent / minute rate. Is it really 30 cents per minute within the US to a cell phone, or am I missing something?
 
pna said:
If it weren't for having to use those 1000 minutes within 30 days, I'd jump on that deal.

I tried out truphone today, and was a little confused by the results. I called my girlfriend on her cell phone, which should have been 30 cents a minute, but only got billed at the 6 cent / minute rate. Is it really 30 cents per minute within the US to a cell phone, or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

There are a few countries that are a flat 6 cents per minute; whether landline or mobile. Canada and US are in that list.

Might seem cheap, but it's one of the most expensive services going (compared to other SIP/VoIP services).

The ONLY thing I miss about my old Nokia is that it was a VoIP swiss army knife... there was no service that it couldn't connect to. The iPhone is extremely limited.
 
rioja said:
There are a few countries that are a flat 6 cents per minute; whether landline or mobile. Canada and US are in that list.

Might seem cheap, but it's one of the most expensive services going (compared to other SIP/VoIP services).
Click to expand...

Yes, but it's still quite a bit better than the 13.3 cents / minute I've got going on my 'pick your plan' gophone plan for my first gen iPhone. I had to sign up for it to get warranty service on the phone, and can't believe that after having spent $76 for a month of service, I'm almost out of minutes 10 days prior to the next billing cycle. As soon as iCall is out, I'm headed back to t-mobile 10 cent /minute pay as you go, with the bulk of my calls made on wifi. The Edge service just isn't $20 / month useful for me.
 
Here's a question then,

Does Truphone usage still register as part of your cellphone's plan? For prepaid minutes, I mean.

I'm moving to the states for college and those 2-year contracts scare the bejeezus outta me. I might just settle for prepaid minutes (oh the iPhone?) for the first few months.

If I get a 1000 minutes with my plan, will the Truphone minutes still register?

EDIT: WAIT. Is iCall for the iphone out?? It seems to be a lot cheaper (free in my case). Thoughts?? http://www.icall.com/iphone/
 
Hey, I'm in the same situation. I'm Canadian, have been living in the states for the past 2 years attending school.

The truphone plan is the cheapest I've encountered. Skype used to be the cheapest option (14 bucks a year, unlimited to landline) but no incoming number, not iphone compatible, and they've jacked up the price now.

Short of skype to skype computer calls, I found Truphone to be the cheapest way to call family and friends in Canada. I think it's 1.5 cents a minute. Be warned, I believe they round up to the minute, and from my experience I've consistently been charged for the dial tones....as in, if nobody picks up I'm still billed for the "ringing".
 
squeakyclutch said:
Hey, I'm in the same situation. I'm Canadian, have been living in the states for the past 2 years attending school.

The truphone plan is the cheapest I've encountered. Skype used to be the cheapest option (14 bucks a year, unlimited to landline) but no incoming number, not iphone compatible, and they've jacked up the price now.

Short of skype to skype computer calls, I found Truphone to be the cheapest way to call family and friends in Canada. I think it's 1.5 cents a minute. Be warned, I believe they round up to the minute, and from my experience I've consistently been charged for the dial tones....as in, if nobody picks up I'm still billed for the "ringing".
Click to expand...


Cool, Thanks. I'm definitely still going to get it.

Does it take away from your plan minutes or is wi-fi completely separated?

(PS. What is your phone plan? I'm looking for a good US one but they all involve 2-year contracts...gulp)
 
GuyInTheBack said:
Cool, Thanks. I'm definitely still going to get it.

Does it take away from your plan minutes or is wi-fi completely separated?

(PS. What is your phone plan? I'm looking for a good US one but they all involve 2-year contracts...gulp)
Click to expand...

Depends on your usage. If you're going to be using truphone for a lot of calls, (and potentially even if you're not), the t-mobile pay-as-you-go plan is way better than any other offering. It ends up being 10 cents a minute, and the minutes last a full year (after you become a 'gold member by filling up with $100). That's competitive with just about every other actual paid plan out there, when you do the math, and if you don't use the minutes, they obviously 'roll over' for you to use.

t-mobile also has their flex-pay system, where you basically can sign up for any of their 2-year contract plans, but not sign a contract. You just pay per month.

AT&T has their 'pick your plan' gophone plans, which are the same kind of one month at a time, no contract plans. The minutes you get aren't quite as good as you'd get signing a contract, which is the main difference between ATT and the t-mobile flex pay (which is the same as the regular contract plans). Pick your plan for $39.99 a month on ATT gives you 300 anytime minutes, 450 night and weekend minutes a month. Texts are outrageous if you don't pick up the text plan for 5 bucks.

I'm banking on truphone or icall letting me get back to my t-mobile pay as you go plan, and spending about 10 bucks a month on cell service.
 
I've had great experiences with Truphone. As far as pricing goes, when I was visiting in France in June I signed up for AT&T's promotional rate, which was still something like 60 cents a minute, down from a dollar a minute from France to the U.S. in January. I used Skype on my laptop when I could, but it would have been nice to only carry an iPhone and seek out a public hotspot.

We had an exchange student from France visiting us July, and she was able to speak to her parents on my iPhone for six cents a minute--an order of magnitude less. The connection through our home 6.0 wi-fi was very clear, and the fidelity was as good as on our house phone.

I suppose I could have let her use our Skype account, but there is always the cool factor to consider.

They do give you a free $5.00 credit to try it out, so it's risk-free to experiment.

I'm sure there will be competitors, and some may be better, but for US?Western Europe pricing, user interface, customer care (they had to cancel and restore my account when I upgraded my 2G to a 3G), and functionality, Truphone is just fine.
 
Truphone does not use your cellular minutes. If you have 3G, I don't think you can use Truphone on that as well....it will be a cold day in hell before at&t lets you make voip on their network. So, truphone could only be used on wifi.

There is a separate "minute tracker" within truphone that deducts money from you truphone account whenever you use it. My phone calls tend to be brief and I use skype to skype calling for longer chats.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back