Make OneSuite VoIP Calls on Smart Phones - Fring™
I was browsing online, waiting at the Red Carpet Club lounge in Chicago O’Hare’s B Terminal for my flight to Singapore, when I saw Michael’s last entry about ATA configuration. Now you can make calls from home phones, but what about cell phones? Then I remembered about this Fring™ application that you can download on wifi-enabled mobile phones. Since my flight was delayed and I got time to kill, I decided to try it out. A quick read here and there, I started the following:
1. Downloaded Fring™ and installed it on my HTC Touch™;
2. Made sure I’m connected to the Internet via wifi;
3. Ran the application and subscribed to services I need;
4. Made my first VoIP call from my HTC Touch™.
Downloading (directly to your mobile phone) and installing it is pretty easy, and Fring™ has a support page if you need some help. On its first run, you’ll be asked to create a username and password for your account then you need to choose services (Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN, Gizmo5, SIP, etc) to subscribe. I picked SIP, Yahoo, MSN and AIM.
You’d only need to have a OneSuite account to use OneSuite VoIP through Broadband Access. Or, you may further subscribe to SuiteAdvantage for $2.95 a month, to get an incoming number. In either case, you can download OneSuite SoftPhone for free. The SoftPhone account information is what you need for SIP registration:
1. After logging in to Fring™, click SIP and then subscribe.
2. Choose “Other.”
3. Enter OneSuite SoftPhone username (wsteve001-voip.onesuite.com), SoftPhone password and proxy address(voip.onesuite.com), then click ok.
4. You should be able to see that SIP is checked if setup is successful.
I called my wife on her mobile to test the connection and quality, and sure enough it worked! That means:
1. Now I don’t even need my laptop to make a VoIP call while away from home;
2. I’ll never reach cell phone overage if I leverage VoIP calls with my unlimited data plan;
3. I can use VoIP calls when cellular signal is weak or nonexistent;
4. This could be the cheapest way to make international calls when I’m traveling outside of US, and most mobile.
But I also made a mental note that with wifi always turned on, cell phone battery life won’t last 24 hours. But it surely adds a lot of convenience, when you don’t need to have a laptop to make VoIP calls. Just a reminder though. Read through the terms and conditions on OneSuite SuiteAdvantage and Fring™ as you’ll be disclosing account information to Fring™ by using this application.
Hey thanks for posting a clear instruction on how to use Onesuite with Fring. My Nokia N96 is on it’s way and I can’t wait to try making VoIP calls from my mobile phone. New onesuite user here.
Jayz
How fast would you burn through the data while abroad? With the iPhone I buy a set amount of data usage before leaving, and try to be frugal with it because I don’t want to be hit with heavy fees upon coming home.
As compared to when we were in Austria (Vienna), we called the local OneSuite number and made a call to the States. When we checked out, the front desk did not even know that we had made a call.
I would be nervous because I had a $325 bill after just 4 days in Tokyo (and that was after paying for the international voice and data packages).
But of course I had to install Fring on the iPhone right away and tested that it works fine. Quality was scratchy, but usable.
regards,
jeff
@Jeff
Hey, Jeff
Personally I have no idea how much data it will consume when making
VoIP calls on your mobile with data roaming. I had a bad experience
with roaming fees (voice and data) and since then never activate the roaming on my mobile phone. I would only use wifi if there’s a free wifi hotspot which has been quite available these days.
But I’ve found out that a 1-minute Fring VoIP call on iPhone consumes
something like 133 kb, which translates to about 8 mb in an hour. When
idle, Fring consumes around a measly 10kb per hour to communicate with
Fring servers.
BTW, my experience with Fring is better than other softphones for mobile I’ve tried.
Cheers,
Steve
Hi there,
Will Onesuite and Fring works with any Windows Mobile phones? Also do I need the latest Windows Mobile version? I have a Onesuite account and about to replace my old but trusty Motorola so maybe I’ll get something I can also use for VoIP.
@Enzo
Hello Enzo,
All Windows Mobile phones we’ve tested works with Fring. You need at least Windows Mobile 5 version to make Fring work properly. WM6 and WM6.1 are also supported by Fring.
Cheers,
Steve
I have problem getting Fring to work consistently on my Nokia phone. I want to try Nimbuzz and having problem setting it up for OneSuite. The problem is at the very first step on the user name. Nimbuzz is expecting the user name to end with @xxx.com . As everyone knows, the Onesuite user name is not like that. I make many variations of the Onesuite name to make it end with xxx.com without success. Can anyone help?
@Tim Horton
I never use NimBuz but I will try it out and see what I can do. I will get back to you after I tested it.
Regards,
Michael
@Michael, tech guy
Michael,
I went to Nimbuzz’s forum, here is what I found:
“Make sure that you enter your username like username@(registrar server)
I don’t know the registrar server for your SIP provider, but you should be able to get that information from them.”
The OneSuite username = xxxxxxx-voip.onesuite.com
What would be the OneSuite (registrar server) be?
I tried voip.onesuite.com and that is not it.
@Tim Horton
Hi Tim,
OneSuite registrant server (domain) is voip.onesuite.com
I’ve registered with NimBuzz and tried to put my OneSuite VoIP details. On the SIP registration page under Username, it says (without @mail.com). I’ve tried many times too but it always says “Wrong username or password. Please try again.”
I don’t have a problem registering my OneSuite VoIP on Fring or any other similar applications. I’m not sure why it won’t go through with NimBuzz but I’ve sent an email to their support.
I’ll keep you updated.
Regards,
Michael
@Michael, tech guy
Thank you for working on the Nimbuzz registration. I also have no problems signing up with Fring. But Fring is kind of touchy on my Nokia E71X. It takes long time to login, if at all. After login, Onesuite and Skype only work sometimes. Logging in Nimbuss is quick and sure. Skype also works every time. That is why I hope Onesuite will work with Nimbuzz too.
@Tim Horton
Hi Tim,
I’ve been emailing Nimbuzz a few times already but so far they only replied once and they also told me “You should enter your username like username@” which I tried to do a few times but always getting an error. I’m still waiting for Nimbuzz support response, last email received from them was Jan. 29, 2010.
@Michael, tech guy
Michael,
Thank you for the update. What about the Onesuite voip technical support people? Would they have some idea what the registrar server is?
Tim
I have a Motorola Droid and taking it to Hong Kong and want to know how to use it at wifi hotspot with fring with either onesuite or skype. Anyone with a simple procedure outline? Tx
@Tim Horton
Sorry for not getting back to you soon, “voip.onesuite.com is the registrar server” from Onesuite Technical support people.
Nimbuzz never sent a follow up on my inquiry so I don’t have a definitive answer on the issue of registering Onesuite VoIP on their “softphone”. If there are new updates then I will post it here.
Michael
@michael
I never had a phone with Droid OS but I’m guessing it’s easy to connect to a wifi hotspot. You need to download and install Fring and you can do it via directly from your Motorola phone or download it to your PC then transfer it to your mobile phone.
Once installed you need to configure Onesuite settings which you can find instructions on this page with screenshots. You only need to do this once, so the next time you ran Fring, you can just make your VoIP call right away.
Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more questions.
Regards,
Michael