[From MINO Wireless] MINO Wireless, a Sunnyvale, CA-based mobile services company, has announced the expansion of its easy-to-use, inexpensive new mobile application for making international calls to Palm Treo phones. Treo users can call any phone worldwide at very low rates.
MINO piloted its Treo application on Handango (www.handango.com) and made great inroads when lots of Treo users downloaded and started using the MINO Java application right away. Because Treo users already have a data plan, there’s no incremental cost to use MINO.
“With MINO on my Treo, I can call anywhere in the world at low rates,” says Thomas Mello, a MINO user who uses the service to call from Romania to the US. “I don’t have to think about where I am calling and whether I am going to be billed one dollar a minute or more for calling a country outside of my plan.”
After users install the MINO Java application, they can go into their MINO Contact List and call with the push of one button. There are no access numbers, no PIN numbers and no hidden charges. Treo users whose phones don’t support Java can also use MINO by pointing their WAP browsers to getmino.com.
“There is a lot of coverage in the press about VoIP on mobile phones and users are excited about the new services being announced. But if you look at what is really working today versus coming in the future, you don’t see a lot of great products,” says CEO Jing Liu. “Though low-cost international calling using VoIP has been available through Vonage, SkypeOut and others, MINO is the first company to extend VOIP calls to wide range of mobile phones.”
“People have been conditioned for a long time not to use their mobile phone for making international calls. They think they should wait to make their international calls till they get to their office or home where they have a reasonable calling plan. But since many mobile phones including most Treo phones, already have an Internet plan, users can finally use their mobile phone to make affordable international calls using MINO.” Liu continues.
MINO began offering its service in early 2006 and has signed up over 75,000 users in more than 50 countries in a few months, mainly through viral marketing.
MINO Wireless was founded in 2004 and has been developing the technology to connect mobile phones to the Voice-Over-IP infrastructure for two years.
About MINO Wireless
MINO Wireless is the first company to launch VoIP on mobile devices. MINO™ is a software service compatible with most mobile devices that allows mobile phone users worldwide to make international calls at very low rates. The company’s revolutionary technology uses the Internet connection on the mobile phone to connect to the Voice-Over-IP infrastructure to reduce the cost of international calls by over 70%. MINO Wireless is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA and is funded by private investors in the US and Asia. Further information about the company can be found at http://www.MINOwireless.com.
