Dublin VoIP firm Blueface has launched a new iPhone app that provides mobile users with a virtual landline number and enables them to save 90pc off the price of phone calls.
The Blueface ‘Banter’ App eliminates the need for residential and business customers to pay costly line rental fees, saving them an average of €25 per month.
Once users download the app and enter their details, they are given a virtual geographic number depending on their desired location (Dublin 01, Galway 091, Cork 021, etc), and their account is credited with 50c free trial credit. Users can then make and receive calls from the virtual landline number via their iPhone handset.
Making a call via the app is simple. Users can access their iPhone address book through the app and select a contact. When the user presses ‘call’ the app sends a message to the Blueface hub to call the user first and, once answered, call the person they wish to contact.
A gap in the market
“We identified a gap in the business and residential marketplace for a cost-saving app that can provide the option of a landline number without the line-rental fee,” Blueface CEO Alan Foy explained.
“While small entrepreneurial businesses need to provide customers with a landline number, they can do without the extra costs associated with a landline contract.
“Similarly, 30pc of the residential population of Ireland no longer have a landline, but often do not wish to make expensive calls from their mobile phones. The Blueface Banter App provides a solution to all these needs.”
As well as the saving on line rental fees, customers can make significant savings on calls made via the app, particularly on international calls.
A call from Ireland to Australia, for example, made from a traditional mobile network, would cost the user from €1.46 to €2 per minute. However, if the same call is made via the Blueface Banter App, the call would cost as low as 9.7c per minute, a saving of up to 96pc.
Blueface developed the app in connection with Vennetics, an innovator in telecommunication and IT application solutions, using GSM OneAPI specifications.
The Blueface Banter App is free to download and is available now on the iTunes store.
