Unfortunately for mobile operators, users with drained phone accounts can still communicate with others from a distance. A number of solutions exist that allow smartphone owners to make free calls if they have high-speed Internet access.
Skype
Perhaps the most popular telecommunications software in the world, it entered the market with much fanfare in 2003 and is considered the luckiest acquisition that Microsoft has made when it bought Skype for $8.5 billion eight years later. According to expandedramblings.com, 300 million people are registered as Skype users and more than 4.9 million use it daily on computers and smartphones.
The Skype mobile application is free to download on Google Play for Android-run devices or App Store for Apple devices. After one registers with a login name and a password, it is possible to make voice and video calls, group video calls, messaging and file sharing. Calls between Skype users are free, but calls to landline and mobile phone numbers are paid from Skype accounts that can be refilled with bank debit or credit cards.
Ivan Pasichnyk, the founder of Ukrainian startup Ecois.me, says he prefers Skype over other mobile apps, since it is the most widely used mobile application for making free calls through the Internet. In Krakow, where Ecois.me is based, Pasichnyk regularly talks on Skype even when he’s out on the street, since Poland has the fourth generation, or 4G, mobile network that guarantees high-speed mobile Internet.
Viber
Viber is said to be one of the closest rivals of Skype. Released in 2010, it is now used by 12 percent of the world’s mobile device owners, according to expandedramblings.com. It can be downloaded free to a computer and a smartphone and has the same functionality as Skype. But unlike Skype it does not require a login name and password. One’s phone number acts as the identifier. Over 608 million mobile numbers are registered on Viber.
According to Oleksiy Pivkopa, a Ukrainian technology specialist, he prefers the communication application over others because the majority of people in his contact list uses it too. “The quality of voice calls on Viber could be better, but when calling from abroad, the app is a lifesaver when you are connected to Wi-Fi,” says Pivkopa.
Google Hangouts
Google’s telecommunications mobile application Hangouts can also be downloaded free and used to make free voice and video calls, video conferences and messaging. In order to register and use Hangouts, one needs to have an account registered in Google+, Google’s social network. Introduced in 2013, it is the youngest of all mobile applications and hasn’t been widely used and advertised yet.
Mariya Rudko, a student at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv, says she uses Google Hangouts very rarely compared to Skype and other apps. At some university campuses, though, social networks are blocked and Skype gets stuck in voice calls and video streaming, while Google Hangouts works in all conditions. Many employers set up interviews in Google Hangouts now, Rudko says.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is independent from the regular Facebook social network mobile application, but it is not a useless one. Launched in 2011, it started off as a purely instant messenger service, but later it incorporated the ability to share files, and make voice and video calls. Facebook positions its Messenger with 800 million users as a solid rival to old timer Skype. It already enables payments to be transferred through the app in the U.S. and this feature is about to come to other countries worldwide by the end of the year.
A public relations specialist from Kyiv, Iana Koretska, says she uses Facebook daily because it has most of the functions that other combined apps have. “Almost all of my business and personal contacts are on Facebook. You open an application, click on a phone icon inside and it’s dialing. Fast, convenient and there is no need to dial any numbers yourself,” she says. The quality of connection of Facebook Messenger is much better than that of Skype and Viber, which is why Koretska also uses the application to call far abroad to the U.S. and Europe.
Petro Ivanov, the head of corporate communications at Ukrainian Kyivstar mobile operator, says the growing popularity of such mobile technologies does eat away at profits in the voice communication services segment. Mobile Internet usage grows instead. The best strategy here is not to compete, but partner with these services, by providing new commercial offers, like unlimited Internet packages for a fixed price.
Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
