Weeks after Skype (News - Alert) raised the profile of Internet-based calling with a popular new iPhone application, a San Francisco-based company today launched a free VoIP broadband phone service that IT insiders are hailing as a bold, feature-rich offering with a singular pricing model.

 

Officials at sipgate, Inc. – a company that’s been making inroads in Europe since 2004 and that developed its own VoIP client for the iPhone (News - Alert) last year – say their service, “sipgate one” (see screen captures below) could replace most of the nation’s 100 million landlines.

 

According to sipgate’s chief executive officer, Thilo Salmon – who spoke to TMC (News - Alert) Vice President Tom Keating for an interview and full product review – phone companies that have been fetching $60 per month for their voice plans are in trouble.

 

“Even with calls to other landlines and mobile phones, most users will spend less than $5 a month using sipgate (News - Alert) one,” Salmon said. “And for those people only receiving incoming calls on their VoIP phone, the service is completely free.”

 

Those of us who are familiar with VoIP and have seen the technology picked up by more and more businesses can’t be surprised by Salmon’s claim, even if (Vonage notwithstanding) pure-play VoIP providers have struggled to gain traction in the residential market.

 

Here’s how the service works:

 

It operates over the Internet, comes with a free, assigned telephone number (we’ve seen this before, from France-based Manifone, a service which requires no Internet connection), and has no set up costs or monthly charges. In many ways, it sounds like Skype – consider that sipgate-to-sipgate calls are free. Yet receiving calls on the assigned sipgate number also is free – a new feature and differentiator from Skype, officials say.

 

And there are some cool features of the service, allowing users to:

 

 

Here’s a look at a screen capture of sipgate one (click on image to enlarge):

 

 

Here’s a second look (click on image to enlarge):

 

 

As Keating notes in a blog post based on his interview with Salmon, when dialing other phone numbers in the U.S. and Canada are just 1.9 cents per minute and calls to toll-free numbers are free.

 

“Other rates apply when calling other countries,” Keating writes. “Thus, sipgate only charges for outgoing calls and E911 ($1.90 monthly), if activated. No other charges or fees are leveraged on a sipgate one subscriber. Thus, to get started you can initially charge your account with a minimum of $10 with automatic crediting if the balance falls below a user-specified amount ($5, $10, $20, $50). Thilo told me that they aim to keep their international rates lower than Skype’s to make them a very compelling option to potential customers. I then asked Thilo who was comparable feature-wise and he responded, ‘Google (News - Alert) Voice. They don’t allow you to connect a SIP phone, but the features are very similar.’ ”

 

Officials at sipgate say they’re preparing a multi-user edition of the service for small businesses seeking not only to replace landlines, “but also costly and complex local phone systems.”

 

According to Keating, the true power behind sipgate is its Web-based interface which gives users full access to voicemail messages, recordings, and faxes. Keating tested a preview version of sipgate one and said he “was pretty impressed with the features and ease of use.”

 

“Thilo told me that they designed the Web-based interface with Google’s Gmail in mind,” Keating reports. “For instance, you can search, star/unstar a recording, as well as label recordings, which are very similar to Gmail. Additionally, the interface allows users to call someone back with a single click, as well as divert calls to other landline or mobile phones. Starting a call is as simple as clicking the New Call button and then choosing which phone device you wish to use.”