Fring makes mobile software that lets you do voice, video and text chat with other Fring users as well as make free calls to Skype users on supported platforms. Now Fring is going a step further by launching fringOut, a service that lets you make cheap calls to actual phone numbers using the Fring mobile client.
Fring to Fring calls are still free, but now for rates starting at 1 cent per minute you can also make domestic and international phone calls.
At launch fringOut is only available for Nokia Symbian S60 phones, but the company plans to launch iPhone and Android versions soon. We’ll see how that goes over with wireless carriers.
While Skype offers software for the iPhone and for Android phones on Verizon that lets you make cheap international phone calls, domestic calls are routed through your telephone carrier and billed at regular rates and counted against your minutes. I can’t imagine AT&T, Verizon, and others will sit idly by and let Fring offer tools that let you circumvent their networks, but I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong.
Fring’s rates definitely seem competitive, so here’s hoping the company can make a go of it with the new fringOut service.