Julie Arnold's blog

I was going to link to a press release on magicJack's revenue before I saw the contents. magicJack is doing well, the title boasts. Congratulations to them and all that jazz.

Then I read the first sentence.

We have an update on our VoIP scams blog this week. According to Huffington Post, scammers have used outsourced call centers to "defraud Americans out of more than $5 million over the past two years." If this doesn't startle you, perhaps it should.

I tried Bobsled Calling on Friday.

I didn’t get to keep my number. My mother thought I was a spammer from Illinois. Good times.

My mother also didn’t recognize my voice and I cut out here and there. The delay was long enough that I would stop talking and wait for her response to come in. However, there’s no WiFi where I called so I was using Sprint’s 3G.

Okay, I admit it. I haven't had a chance to try Bobsled yet. It's not my fault, though.* The T-Mobile app couldn't call out to landlines.

If there's one thing phone companies all have in common (besides phones), it's lawsuits. More specifically, patent lawsuits. Suits, countersuits, jumpsuits, you name it.

In the last five years, telecom has been trying to sue the pants off of competitors for alleged VoIP patent infringement.

If you haven't been following trends in the cell phone world, there have been a few recent pushes for mobile VoIP. One is the release of Republic Wireless, which, on its own, dramatically changes the landscape of mobile phone plans. Another is eVoice's business-oriented mobile VoIP app from last month, giving users a mobile PBX.

The tech world has done it again. This time the new iPhone app is a virtual PBX for your cell phone.

Wait, what?

Like other apps and products coming out, such as Republic Wireless, the eVoice Mobile App uses WiFi or 3G/4G networks with VoIP.

The eVoice Mobile App even has an auto attendant to direct incoming calls. eVoice’s app also adds extensions for employees and intercom functionality.

Really. What?

On November 8th, a new product is coming out. Bandwidth.com is launching VoIP for mobile phones.

“Great,” you say, “it happens all the time.” Well, this product release is special. Republic Wireless, they're calling it. It's not a softphone app, it's a new cell phone service for Android smartphones.

Republic Wireless will use "Hybrid Calling." The phone relies on Wi-Fi when available then automatically switches to cell networks when there's no Wi-Fi. Some premium VoIP apps can already do this.

Great news for our cell phones!

On Monday, October 17, wireless phone providers agreed to tell customers before they approach their monthly limit for voice, data, and text. When providers don't notify their customers of a sharp increase on their phone bill, it is known as bill shock.

Like most technology, VoIP can be used for evil. VoIP users aren't more likely to be scammed than any other consumer but there are specific scams that seem to plague the VoIP community.