Overview of Internet telephony clients for Symbian 9

Hey. Rostik and I did a review of VoIP clients for Symbian 9 smartphones. There is an overview of the program’s capabilities, a comparison of the communication quality and the traffic consumed, but since few people use Internet telephony on the mobile, we’ll first give you a little educational program that you can skip.

Usually calls between Internet users are free - you can make calls to your computer and mobile with a VoIP client entirely via the Internet. There are a sufficient number of services that provide such a service: Skype, Mail. Agent, GoogleTalk and others.
For ordinary phones for which VoIP is not implemented, there is another option - all sorts of paid services like Callback (Talkonaut for Java) and making calls through the gateway (Skype Lite), when the program makes a phone call to its gateway and Internet telephony starts from there. In addition, it is possible to call from a mobile to another phone via the Internet, in this case VoIP is activated, and then the call to the subscriber continues through the gateway. For example, in Skype, this service is called SkypeOut, calls cost money and are charged per minute. You can pay for such services through Webmoney / PayPal, as well as a credit card or an ordinary recharge voucher.

The review did not include programs that did not want to work (Octrotalk, Yeigo), paid programs (IM + for Skype, TiVi, because if you want to pay for a VoIP client, then your instructor will select the desired program), as well as the official Skype Lite, since it is not native, but written in Java, and conversations there are made by calling over a mobile network to a special gateway and are relevant only to tariff plan owners with unlimited calls. So we stopped at Talkonaut , Nimbuzz and Fring .
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In this review, we were primarily interested in Skype and GoogleTalk, however, the reviewed programs perfectly support a rather impressive number of protocols (including SIP), but for Gizmo, the mobile client can be found on the project website.

Talkonaut

Supports (via GTalk2VoIP-gateway): Jabber, Google Talk, ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, SIP and Skype.

A good program for chat rooms and conferences, good support for Jabber, but the calls have let us down. Here for voice calls using your own gateway GTalk2VoIP. You can call Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo and SIP for free. But calls to Skype - either for $ 5, buy unlimited, or be satisfied with demo calls lasting three minutes. In addition, through the same GTalk2VoIP, you can call ordinary phones at prices averaging a quarter cheaper than SkypeOut.

GTalk2VoIP replenishes an account via WebMoney and PayPal, unlike Skype, which is replenished even with a credit card or Privat24. According to our calculations, when depositing funds from a credit card in Webmoney, exchanging WMU (WMR) in WMZ and depositing an account, the advantage in GTalk2VoIP price over SkypeOut is practically leveled.

Regarding the quality of voice calls - it is disgusting. Very quiet, even at maximum volume and the most fashionable codec, and Skype calls are made through the gateway, that is, not on your behalf, but with open_sky_38, for example.

Connection and entry to the network: 20 kb;
A minute of conversation in GoogleTalk: 280 kb;



There are two more programs - Fring and Nimbuzz. First consider the issues that apply to both of them.

Fring, like Nimbus, has its own protocol and can call other mobile users to fring directly. We turned on the fring on two phones and rang from one to the other via Skype and through the fring. There is no difference in sound quality, which suggests that the same codec is used.


The chat in Fringa and Nimbuse as a whole is second-rate, there is no history, you can’t copy the text from the conversation, if you have been sent a link, then nothing remains but to re-type it.

It is not possible to add Skype contacts, but Nimbuzz can add all the rest, and Fring can only add contacts from its network and ordinary numbers to the phone book.

You can not initiate group calls and chats, but you can participate in group calls if you are invited there. Group chat is divided into individual.

Nimbuzz

Supports:
VoIP: Skype, GoogleTalk, Yahoo, MSN, SIP, Nimbuzz.
IM: ICQ, AIM, Facebook, Orcut, MySpace, Twitter, AIM, SchuelerVZ, StudiVZ and MeinVZ, Giovani, Hyves, Gadu-Gadu.

I was pleased with the possibility of using SkypeOut with the display of the current balance and the phone book. The sound quality is superb. You can send files and take pictures of the camera phone.

The program itself is fairly well organized, with a nice interface, the only thing
alerted - the red call end button does not break it, but merely minimizes the program, but these are trifles to which you can get used.

Sound quality: the interlocutor in Skype, I heard perfectly and in WiFi, and in the 3G-network. I was heard a little worse (the call to the test center confirms this, but everything is quite intelligible). But with GoogleTalk there is a lot of trouble - the volume is good, but even on a high-speed channel, jerks and delays sometimes start, which make the conversation unacceptable. The experiment was repeated on different phones and with different interlocutors - the result is the same. In this case, the interlocutor hears me perfectly, but the user of the Nimbus is experiencing inconvenience.

Results of measurements:
Connection and entry to the network: 30 kb;
Minute talk on Skype: 350 kb;
A minute of conversation in GoogleTalk 280 kb;
Standby: 10-100 kb, depending on the movement in the contact list.

Fring

Supports:
VoIP: Skype, Google Talk, MSN, SIP, Fring.
IM: ICQ, Facebook, Last.fm, Twitter, Orkut.

Funny program, once I used it for a long time. The main advantage over the rest is low traffic consumption - even on an ordinary EDGE to use the fringes - sheer pleasure. Another thing is that on wide channels the same codec is used, and of course it’s far from the sound in the halo.

Fring can use SkypeOut to call phonebook numbers.

Connection and entry to the network: 20 kb;
A minute of conversation in Skype: 130 kb;
A minute of conversation in GoogleTalk: 130 kb;

We didn’t include some more free programs (Yeigo, Octrotalk) in the review, because we couldn’t get Yeigo to call, and Octrotalk, which is offered for downloading on the official website, isn’t installed, because file is broken.





Findings:
If you need Skype for voice calls and a fast channel (WiFi or 3G) and not expensive - Nimbuzz ;
if you also need GoogleTalk, or the traffic is expensive, or the speed is low (for example, EDGE) - Fring ;
if chats and conferences are needed, links are exchanged, etc., then you have to endure the low volume of conversations in Talkonaut , because text communication is at its best.
In addition, all the considered programs support the reception and transfer of files.

I would like to thank Rostislav Forostny ( Rroosstt ) for help with testing programs and preparing screenshots.

Thanks for attention!