Fring - my quick review of VoIP via cellphone handsets

OK, so I have been reading about Fring for a while. Every time I search for "Skype Symbian" to find out if there is any new information about when and if Skypebay will release a Symbian Series 60v3 version to allow me to take advantage of my unlimited data plan (in the Czech Republic) and wifi hotspots (when roaming), I get stories about Fring. So finally, I took the plunge, schlepped over to their website, signed up, downloaded and installed the fring-ware from the SMS link they sent me, put in my Skype settings, and voila! Now I'm using Skype from my mobile phone (Nokie E70) over free 3G connection. The default setting seems to be "keep data connection open all the time" which I imagine would drain a battery pretty fast, but you can turn off the "always on" feature.

Like Skype, Fring has their own echocall test feature so you can test that the call is working. My first test call was a toughie: Fring-3G-Skype-dialup_user_in_Armenia_with_thinkpad_speakerphone ... the end to end voice quality was pretty lousy as you might expect, however it did work; the conversation was halting and garbled, but possible. Next up, Skype across town to a broadband user with a headset- call quality was very good. I could hear perfectly, though the recipient of the call on the other end said that my voice sounded "metalic," i.e. tinny. Overall, a very satisfactory test experience via my free 3G connection.

Next I switched to my home WiFi network, setup the WEP key (thank goodness for the thumb keyboard on the E70), and tried a test call to the echocall number-- call quality was significantly lower than via 3G, but nonetheless understandable. Until Skype comes out with a native Symbian client, this is the way to go for free calls from your Symbian phone. Please let me know what you think.