Iristel Romania launches Skype-like service

The alternative telephony operator Iristel has introduced a new service to the Romanian market. BroadFone is a new service that allows users to make international calls via their computers at less than half the cost of using fixed or mobile networks.

The technology Iristel employs (voice-over-IP or VoIP) will be familiar to users of the famous Skype platform, which so far has attracted more than 50 million registered users and has been downloaded over 165 million times.

A similar service is being offered by the US-based firm Vonage Holding.

“The difference between our service and Skype is that we allocate our customers a Romanian authentication number (which looks just like a regular phone number) on which they can receive calls from any phone,” explains Mario Pavoni, Iristel”s CEO. Still, as with Skype – and this is what the two services have in common – BroadFone clients can make and receive calls via their computers.

“There is an international trend of integrating all the information and services a businessperson needs into their PC: financial information, e-banking and telephone services,” continued Pavoni.

In a further move to integrate as many services as possible, BroadFone will also allow the sending of SMS (text messages) and faxes.

The new service is largely aimed at business people that frequently travel abroad and have access to a stable internet connection with a minimum speed of 32 Kbps.

“We don”t want to replace the roaming services provided by mobile telephone operators, rather we intend to offer an alternative,” Pavoni added.

BroadFone clients will continue to use mobile telephone services that give them more flexibility.

The new service will be beneficial to users that spend a lot of time working on their computers, in particular laptop computers.