Hot Concepts

Fring Me When You're Free

Fring (www.fring.com)
Category: Interactive mobile services
Tel Aviv

Fring has a radical approach to saving money for mobile users. Like Skype, its technology lets them make voice-over-the-Internet phone calls, only in this case, from a handset. The calls are sent as data via the wireless Web. And instead of paying for expensive pay-per-use text messages, Fring customers can chat using instant messaging on their mobile phones. The service now interoperates (exchanges information) with Skype, ICQ, Yahoo, AOL Instant Messenger, Twitter, MSN Messenger, and Google Talk. In February, Fring added a new file-transfer feature that lets users swap music tracks, pictures, video clips, and other files regardless of device or connection type. Fring's free-to-download software works on over 50 models of handsets running the Symbian, Windows, or Linux operating systems. The company says more than 100,000 new users from 160 countries are now downloading, installing, and registering to use the service each month. Premium services and advertising are expected to be added at a later date.