C'mon, surely any serious FT-er only stores all their numbers on their phone in that format already? How do you use your phone in any other country than its home one?

Every number - US numbers included - goes into my BB in that format, with no problem at all.

I loaded Fring with a 20mb upload wifi connection and couldn't get it to work at all. The technology will get better--it seems likely that the jailbroken phones will have the fix first.

I loaded Fring with a 20mb upload wifi connection and couldn't get it to work at all. The technology will get better--it seems likely that the jailbroken phones will have the fix first.

Sorry mate but when I record the neighborhood drugstore or movie theatre, i don't even include the area code. And how do you dial "+ country area code" when making a local call?

And since I carry multiple phones with multiple prepaid or post paid sim cards that many times can call long distance by dialing an access code, they're not all in the universal "+".

Just read an article on Yahoo's Tech News that Skype is releasing a free app for the iPhone on Tuesday, 3/31/09. They will also be launching Skype service for Blackberry in May 2009.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/200903...one_blackberry

I for one will be downloading the Skype app to my iPhone as soon as I can on Tuesday

Skype is to announce for the iPhone and iPod Touch on Tuesday, March 31, according to the New York Times. Blackberry will follow in May.

The article can be found here.

Wow, can't believe nobody mentioned SIPPHONE for the iPhone, it's in the Apple store.

I just came back from three weeks in south america and wanted a way to be able to call home affordable (ie: free, if possible). I gave all the current VOIP and SIP type applications I could find a pretty serious testing, including all the ones mentioned on here.

All of the testing was done on a 1st generation iPhone, using wifi.

The only two winners were SIPPHONE, which is super simple, but effective. If you have an existing SIP account for your VOIP service, you just put in your information and it works. Real simple, voice quality was good.

Truphone was the solution if you want a pay-as-you-go solution. The per minute to the US was cheap and the voice quality was really good. I'm not sure what codec they are using, but it survived low-bandwidth wifi connections pretty well.

Both of these apps are available in the iTunes store. The SIPPhone application was around $6. The Truphone one is free, since you have to pay as you go.

I found the iPhone an excellent companion for this sort of use. In some wifi locations you have to first load up a web page and "Agree" to the terms and conditions before you get service. Using some of the current wifi VOIP phones on the market like the Linksys, this is a serious pain to do even simple web page navigation.

The Amazon Kindle application came out during the trip, so I downloaded that and some books. If you have the iPhone in flight mode, you can read on that thing forever without running out of battery.

As a portable SIP phone for VOIP and the Kindle app, the iPhone is definitely staying in my bag for international travel. Don't even need to get the 3G model for this use.

I'm curious about the upcoming skype app. I current have a skype-to-go number - along with unlimited world subscription (that soons expires and will be renewed) and a skype number.

From either my BB or my iPhone, I can call this skype-to-go number and then either hit speedials 1-9 or dial a number (domestic or international) and pay regular skype rates (or free if included in my unlimited world subscrip).

Now this will only work with network access, in my case, TMO. It won't work on only wifi - for that I just downloaded Nimbuzz.

When skype app opens up tomorrow, it will only work on wifi and not carrier network. Does that make it better than my skype-to-go method? I can see it better for iTouch owners but normal iPhone users - any real difference?

App store link:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...304878510&mt=8

I have installed this but have not had a chance to give it a go yet. Anyone tried it yet? How is the call quality?

Understand your other points, but if it's a GSM phone then it makes no difference - works whether you're calling the building next door or a country on the other side of the world.

I see a few key differences:

1. I've never liked ring-out type services because since I got my first mobile phone, my brain suddenly lost all capacity to remember any numbers since that point forward. I remember my parents' phone numbers, my brother's and a couple of friends but that's it. Having to dial a number then punch in another number, or clumsily navigate my address book to send the tones from another contact position is too much hassle.

With the skype app, it integrates with your address book and you just find your contact and go.

2. I'm expecting to be able to ditch my TMo UMA handset for international calls once the 3.0 version of the iPhone software comes out and supports push notifications. I will expect to be able to forward my US number to my SkypeIn number, and have it only ring when I'm connected to wifi.

I can keep my phone on and connected to the GSM network at all times without risk of incurring roaming airtime minutes from incoming calls.

I still get my inbound SMS too!

3. Making international phone calls at dirt cheap rates regardless of where I am (provided I'm on wifi) is a big bonus. While yes, you can use other services like skype to go, etc., they're not as easy as navigating my address book and hitting talk.

4. At home, I no longer have to be tethered to my computer for voice usage.

5. Device convergence. One less thing to have/use/carry/integrate with.

Now I expect there to be some issues. For one, I don't know yet how they will handle incoming GSM phone calls while also on a Skype call. I don't think the Apple API allows you to defer handling of a voice call. It will always cause your application to close, hence there goes your phone call.

I also don't know about the call quality either...so that remains to be seen.

However, I am extremely excited to see this app released, and I will probably start moving to cut off my TMo phone service and instead knock it down to BlackBerry only.

I've got the TruPhone app on my iPhone and like it for what it does. Outgoing calls only (though supposedly that's being worked on, and may well have been resolved for all I know), and of course I had to have a wifi signal, but that was fine for my purposes (on holiday in Japan). It interfaces with my regular list of contacts and the sound quality is reasonable: a bit of delay, a little bit of echo. I like the pay-as-you-go option as well (though they've just launched an unlimited plan, as per an email advert this AM).

Thanks for taking the time on this. For now, nimbuzz works on my iPhone whereas skype does not (i have first gen unlocked/jailbroken iPhone running 2.1) and skype-to-go still working well with BB.

Until I can fix the skype to work on iPhone, guess I'm stuck