Clarification on RF

[wifinetguy]

Hi, everyone. I'm a brand new user of RF. In looking it over and trying it out, I have a question that I would like to have some clarification on:

In my mind, the usage of RF doesn't really accomplish anything. I have to make a call from my iPhone to a 415-area number. Then I am connected to the VoIP service for my call, Gizmo for example. So aren't I using AT&T minutes to make the call to the 415-area number? If so, where's the benefit of using RF?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[marcelo]

If all you do is make telephone calls within the United States to other traditional or cellular telephones, then RF is of little use to you.

But if you're using RF to connect to overseas telephone services using Gizmo Project (or any other supported IP telephony service provider), you are saving a considerable amount of money over AT&T's international calling rates. Imagine calling your mom in Greece from your car at rates as low as 2 cents a minute. It can't be done without RF.

Also, RF gives you the ability to reach users of Voice over IM services (such as Google Talk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Talk) from your cell phone. In other words, if your pal is on Google Talk in Brazil, you can call him from your iPhone and your only charge would be your cell phone minutes. Other services will be added soon. It's estimated that by next year, more than 1 billion people around the world will be using IM daily, the vast majority over clients that support voice communications. That's hundreds of millions of people around the globe available to you from your iPhone for the cost of a local cell phone call.

If your place of work uses a PBX with IP capabilities (such as Asterisk, Communigate Pro and many others), you can actually make calls from your iPhone, over RF, using your company's PBX accounts (just as if you are in the office).

And, stay tuned, as there are many more features to come.

[wifinetguy]

OK. Thank you. That helps.

[nonsequito]

Thank you Marcelo. This answered the question I was going to ask...and I think it should be made clearer on you website, in FAQs. It seemed to me that this was the case, but it should be explicit.

[stye214]

Hi and Thanks for the detailed info.... i need bit more clarification.......if i make the call international call using iphone with RF does it cost to ma att account or i m just using the ma regular minutes... and calling internationally free using RF service?

basically if i make the international call does it cost me anything or its absolutely free?

Thanks

[gardel]

Unless you have a VoIP service provider entered in the Settings area of RF.com, any call you make to a regular phone number with tyour carrier (i.e. "AT&T") selected in the pull down menu will go through your carrier, and not through RF.com. RF provides free phone calls to skype, GoogleTalk, Yahoo Talk, MSN Messwenger and other voice over IM and IP networks. To call regular phone numbers, and to save a lot of money, you will eed a VoIP service provider registered with RF.com. More information here:

Using RF without a service provider

Using RF with my service provider

[stye214]

really dint get it in detailed making call using yahoo and gtalk?? with gtalk or yahoo...etc i can make the call to regular land line internationally ??? sry but i dint get it.... also with the RF i make the call to india.... using RF dial pad on the iphone screnn followed by the contry code and so on... and it went does this mean i make the call india but i m not getting charged for it?? or i m scrwed coz i talked abt half hour....so i have to pay that amount to my att career ???

[amkaplan]

Marcelo,

My question is about minutes usage -- aren't we making the call through Safari, so it's really using my unlimited data plan, and not using any ATT phone minutes? Or does RF just use Safari as an interface to make the call to RF over the ATT phone network? If so, if I call from Brazil, won't I be using ATT minutes and getting nailed for international roaming charges? I'd appreciate this clarification.

Thanks,

Allan

If all you do is make telephone calls within the United States to other traditional or cellular telephones, then RF is of little use to you.

But if you're using RF to connect to overseas telephone services using Gizmo Project (or any other supported IP telephony service provider), you are saving a considerable amount of money over AT&T's international calling rates. Imagine calling your mom in Greece from your car at rates as low as 2 cents a minute. It can't be done without RF.

Also, RF gives you the ability to reach users of Voice over IM services (such as Google Talk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Talk) from your cell phone. In other words, if your pal is on Google Talk in Brazil, you can call him from your iPhone and your only charge would be your cell phone minutes. Other services will be added soon. It's estimated that by next year, more than 1 billion people around the world will be using IM daily, the vast majority over clients that support voice communications. That's hundreds of millions of people around the globe available to you from your iPhone for the cost of a local cell phone call.

If your place of work uses a PBX with IP capabilities (such as Asterisk, Communigate Pro and many others), you can actually make calls from your iPhone, over RF, using your company's PBX accounts (just as if you are in the office).

And, stay tuned, as there are many more features to come.

[eric]

Allan,

The calls go out as GSM voice calls and use your minutes.

Using your example of calling from Brazil, if your phone SIM is local to Brazil, you would incur international cell charges back to our US POP. We are in the process of adding more POP's in other countries (we just added a POP in Canada), to eliminate the international charges.

If you are traveling in Brazil, you would incur international roaming charges back to our US POP. The RF Dialer is a web based application and does not have the ability to send voice traffic over WiFi. Sending voice over WiFi would require a native iPhone application, something we are exploring for the future.

[amkaplan]

Thanks, Eric,

I neglected to mention I would be using Skype as my network (it was way past my bedtime). Is the case the same when using Skype?

Sorry about that,

Allan