VOIP Startup Fring Raises $12 Million Series B

[TechCrunch]

Israeli-based VOIP start-up Fring has closed an estimated $12 million second round, led by US VC fund North Bridge Venture Partners. VenFin and previous investors Pitango, Veritas and Yossi Vardi also participated. If the investment estimate is accurate, it would be one of the larger rounds for a VOIP company.

Fring is a mobile application for Windows and Symbian phones that uses VOIP to make cheap/free mobile calls and instant message. Unlike Jajah, but like Truphone, Fring sends calls and chats over Wi-Fi internet access or your 3G or GPRS Internet data plan. Like Skype, users are charged a nominal fee to call standard phone lines. However, calls made to other internet phones are free. Fring connects to standard phones, other SIP based VOIP clients, and chat applications (Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, and even Twitter).

Tags: voip, mobile, web2.0

More from TechCrunch...

[Jeff]

I would love to give Fring a try, but alas, "fring does not support Windows
Mobile 2003 or older versions." It looks like I'm SOL, at least with my HP iPAQ hw6515.

And since when does 18 months make technology obsolete? Outdated I can accept, but obsolete?!

[David]

Windows Mobile 2003 is pretty old. WM5 was released in 2005, and WM6 is being rolled out now...

The issue is really that the WM platform didn't start to really catch on until version 5, and there were some serious changes that made it far more usable than previous version. (Soft keys, for example).

Unfortunately, you got a device with an OS at the end of it's life cycle. The reason you can't upgrade is that WM5 uses memory differently, instead of data stored in RAM, RAM is used like a computer--for running applications. I believe this is part of the reason why it's more complex to write software that works with both the newer (and more popular) WM5/6, vs 2003.

[Jeff]

Yes, I'm out of luck. When I replace this phone, I need to decide if I should go with an iPhone or a WM6 device.