FriendCaller Shows There is Voice Beyond Skype

FriendCaller is a simple and barebones free phone service and in that lies its beauty. In order to make phone calls, you don't need any special software — a 750 kilobyte Java-based soft client downloads and loads up inside a web browser. You can sign in using Facebook, but it is not necessary. FriendCaller gives you a special link (CallMe links) to share via social networks, email and instant message. Your friends can click and call you, and they don't need to register with the service.  In addition, the company has special FriendCaller apps for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and Facebook.

The C2Call's footprint

If you wish to make phone calls to external phones outside the C2Call's footprint, you need to sign-up for an account and pay for the the calls — from the U.S. it costs about 2 cents a minute to 35 different countries. From April 2010 to early August 2010, the two-year-old C2Call had generated $2 million in revenues — showing signs that it has a business model, as long it keeps adding people and encourages them to keep talking.

Is the Java client open source?No, the Java Client is our own proprietary development, but we are using open standard protocols like SIP/SDP/RTP to establish a connection between the clients.Is the protocol for phone calls open or closed? What is the protocol?An open protocol SIP (Session Instantiation Protocol). We can connect to our own service, but we also have a client for 3rd party SIP providers. Very soon we will also open up our network for 3rd party SIP devices like SIP soft phones or SIP-enabled mobile devices (e.g. Nokia mobile phones, with built-in SIP client)

Platform-independent

It establishes a platform-independent, peer-to-peer connection through any Java-enabled Internet browser. We host a SIP compliant backend infrastructure with SIP proxy, media relay, presences service, etc. However, the actual audio connection on VoIP calls will be peer-to-peer whenever possible, which sometimes depends on the firewall/NAT. As fall back, we can always use the media relay, hosted in our back-end system.