Nice post by Jeff Bourgeois explaining how to dial iNum numbers specifically from Gizmo5 and from Google Talk… http://blog.cqvoip.net/2010/04/calling-inums-with-gizmo5-and-google.html
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A long awaited feature: SMS (short messaging service) is now supported on the iNum numbers.
Wireless subscribers from a growing number of carriers – including Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, Virgin, and Boost Mobile – now are able to text these numbers.
The service is already available in the United Kingdom, France and the United States, at prices ranging from 10 to 20 pence per message in the U.K., for example. We are working on expanding the reachability from more wireless carriers in more countries.
We need your help in verifying reachability from as many wireless carriers as possible. In whatever country you are please try sending an SMS to our test number +883 510 000 000 094 and let us know how it goes and what rate you are experiencing.
Thanks !
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UPDATE 1: As can be seen from some of the comments, the global reachability is far from complete yet. The reachability from wireless networks is expected to grow on a weekly basis, and we will add a reach list on the iNum website as soon as possible.
UPDATE 2: In order to verify whether an SMS was successfully received by our test number (+883 510 000 000 094), please include your email address in the content of the SMS message.
If the test was successful you will receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive a confirmation email after sending your test SMS it means that we did not receive your SMS message.
UPDATE 3: Please spread the word, and please contact your wireless carrier if the test fails.
The more people try to send SMS messages from their wireless carrier, and the more people complain to their wireless carrier when it does not work, the faster the reachability will increase.
Thank you !
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If you use Truphone on your iPod touch or iPhone you already have an iNum number, because as soon as you signup for Truphone you will automatically be assigned your iNum.
Now you can also make free calls to any iNum number from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Simply install the Truphone software and start making your calls as you would dial any other phone number.
If you are unsure what your Truphone-assigned iNum is, simply email Truphone Customer Services on: customer.service AT truphone.com
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Next week Jeff Pulver’s HD Communications Summit will be hosted by Orange at their R&D Center in Paris. We’re very excited to find out what other telcos are working on as the HD momentum grows.
Over the next few years, the mobile industry is likely to face some competition from city-wide wireless broadband and new carriers springing up to take them on in their own space. For the carriers, the move towards next-generation broadband with technologies like LTE and WiMAX make streaming HD video to mobile handsets an attractive proposition. 3G video can be great if it’s all you’ve got, but a confused mess of a blur is often what you see. Given the quality on my laptop using Skype is super-awesome… it doesn’t help me believe in the future of HD video on handsets.
- What’s the purpose ? I only use video when I sit down and talk to someone… they have WiFi there!
or maybe:
- I don’t use video! What an awful idea!
Clearly, WiFi is a much cheaper alternative to current mobile data plans. But with mobile HD voice and video, you’re on the go with your contacts, with a bright high-definition touchscreen display. The warm fuzzy next-door feeling you have with Skype.
For those, like me, with an allergy to video: it is not only human connectivity that you can benefit from. Applications living in the cloud can receive and deliver, process, interpolate, and create streaming video. This creates a wealth of possibilities once it is accessible to a large community.
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Jonathan Christensen of Skype announced in March 2009 at eComm the royalty free licensing of its super-wideband codec, SILK. To this end, all Skype calls to +883 iNum numbers are now available in high definition.
Skype’s user base of 480 million users brings HD calling to all of iNum’s partner networks. From retail users to enterprises, call centers to call conferencing services and not forgetting the plethora of innovative voice applications available through Voxeo: using iNum they can all be reachable from Skype’s new HD platform.
High definition is made possible because such calls do not travel over the PSTN, ensuring end-to-end wideband capability. The PSTN supports 8,000 audio samples per second, whereas the new SILK codec supports between 16,000 and 24,000 samples per second. This greater sampling rate enables the caller to hear more detail in the conversation: regional dialects and subtle consonantal sounds are represented more clearly on a HD call.
Background noise however is also more easily picked up, and this is why HD requires a better quality microphone and speaker set than traditional PSTN telephony. For HD to work, all components on the voice path need to support high definition.
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iNums are so easy to use from IM clients and partner networks, that it seems a shame not to have the same ease of use in countries where the local carriers are yet to open access. It’s easy to store and call iNums in your cell phone’s contact list using the pause key when dialling a number. This makes calling iNums on the road just as easy as it is from your laptop or desktop.
On a Nokia phone, hold down the ‘*’-star key for 1 second, and a ‘p’ will appear. On the iPhone, press the ‘*’ key and then the ‘pause’ button at the bottom of the screen. The list of access numbers is available on the iNum.net website:
http://www.inum.net/what-is-inum/inum-partners/
For example, to dial the iNum +883 510 000 000 091 for a cell phone which is normally used in California, you would store the following contact on your phone:
+12132213799p883510000000091
Since your cellular plan includes free minutes, and this is a normal local, geographic telephone number, the call to the iNum will be included in your standard contract. Soon though, you’ll be able to dial the iNum without even this access number!
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The iNum networks gets to support high definition voice as of today.
With a growing number of endpoints and service providers that are supporting HD voice calls the timing is right for iNum to become a key identifier to address HD endpoints over disparate networks.
G.722 is the first HD codec to be supported and other codecs will be added later this year - stay tuned…
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iNum numbers will be used this whole week to enable wireless texting and calling to Burning Man participants.
This has been done in partnership with the OpenBTS project, and one of the purposes of this partnership is to showcase how iNum can be used to quickly and cost-effectively connect regions that need it, for example when a natural disaster or a war isolate a region from the rest of the world.
We first met David Burgess at eComm where he introduced us to the OpenBTS project. Thanks David for your tremendous help and efforts in getting this launched !
Burning Man is a huge event gathering 50,000 people and taking place in the middle of the Nevada desert. For more info, see www.burningman.com
OpenBTS is an open-source project forming the basis of a new type of cellular network. It basically allows the deployment of a VoIP and Asterisk based wireless network. For more info, see openbts.sourceforge.net
UPDATE: see daily updates and pictures on the OpenBTS blog: openbts.blogspot.com
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Great feedback from Pete Wylie at FierceVoIP, Nadeem Unuth at About.com and Gary Kim at TMCNet about the results of our survey, showing that 70% of the people have lost contacts as a result of changing their phone number….
Amongst other things, this survey confirms the pressing need for global telephone numbers, which is what iNum intends to deliver.
UPDATE: further feedback from Ted Stevenson at VoIP Planet and Robert Poe at VoIP Evolution
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Hong Kong just got closer …
Dial 58080177 from Hong Kong and get connected to the iNum world !
Of course the long term objective is to provide direct dialing to iNum numbers without the need for access numbers, but this is a start…
The complete list of access numbers can be found here.
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