FringOut - Fring takes on Skype - Learn How to Make Free Calls on your IPhone or HTC Evo 4G

Fring has added outbound calling to their mobile app. This outbound calling service allows you to make outbound calls from your cell phone to mobile or land-line numbers without using your cell phone minutes. Fring already allowed you to make calls through your own SIP provider as well as the ability to call other Fring users through Frings servers. However this service will allow you to use Fring to call non-Fring users at any mobile number or land-line number.

This the first paid service provided by Fring, which also offers Free Video Calling and Free live chat. The Fring App lets you stay in touch with your friends, family members and coworkers on a multitude of IM Services and Social Networks, including AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, ICQ, Facebook, Twitter and LastFM.

FringOut brings Fring in direct competition with Skype, which is a popular Internet calling service. Fring previously integrated with Skype, letting Fring users make Skpe calls and chat with Skype Users through the Fring app. For a short while they even let you do Skype Video calls from your Sprint HTC Evo 4G. Shorty after the iPhone 4 release, which Fring also had a Video Call feature for the Fring and Skype relationship got rocky and the two began a dispute.

US Domestic Calling Rates

Domestic calls within the USA are .9 cents per minute.

While this is pretty cheap, I find it hard to justify using a SIP service on a mobile phone to make domestic calls. If you do not have an unlimited data plan you could get a very high cell phone bill if you start making calls over your cell phones Internet service. Even with my unlimited data plan and 4G service I would rather pay for the additional minutes than make calls over my cell phones 3G or 4G connection.

However, if you no longer have a land-line or are thinking about dropping your land-line, you may want to use FringOut to make domestic calls when you are home. There you can connect your cell phone to your wireless network, so you can make the calls through your broadband connection. For this to work you will need a cell phone that can connect to a wireless network, along with a wireless router and a good Internet connection.

International Calling Rates Start at 1 cent per minute.

If you need to make international calls this is where using an Internet based calling service like Fring will save you a lot of money. Most of the European countries cost right around 1 cent per minute and most of the rates are far lower than you would get through a traditional phone company.

Here are some of the FringOut's advertised rates as of September 21st 2010 in USD.

• Call Canada for 0.6¢/minute
• Call China for 1.1¢/minute
• Call Chili for 2.3¢/minute
• Call Germany for 1.2¢/minute
• Call Hong Kong for 1.4¢/minute
• Call India for 2.6¢/minute
• Call Iraq for 18¢/minute
• Call Japan for 2.4¢/minute
• Call Mexico for 6.2¢/minute
• Call Russia for 7.7¢/minute
• Call the UK for 0.7¢/minute
• Call the United Arab Emirates for 16.1¢/minute