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sipgate opens up Apple iPhone to third-party VoIP services

Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 08:58 AM EST

sipgate Inc. today announces the immediate availability of a free application for Apple's iPhone, which, for the first time allows consumers to natively use any VoIP service which uses the industry standard SIP. Consumers can now use their iPhones to make and receive VoIP calls from their devices over a Wi-Fi Internet connection using a wide variety of VoIP providers. The VoIP-enabling software is available from sipgate’s website.

With the sipgate service, users can dial any number without using minutes from a wireless plan. This is particularly useful when calling to or from other countries, as call costs can be as high as $3 per minute. However, when using a VoIP service, costs can be kept as low as $0.01 per minute. sipgate is giving new users 111 free minutes for domestic calls for users to test out VoIP usage on the device (charges from third parties for Wi-Fi or VoIP subscriptions may apply).

Another benefit of sipgate is that consumers can use any domestic or international number provided by their VoIP service on their iPhone. This means that they can make and receive calls from different domestic and international numbers, all on a single device.

Thilo Salmon, CEO of sipgate commented in the press release, “We love VoIP and we love the iPhone so we are giving people like us who always wanted VoIP on the iPhone the ability to use any SIP-based VoIP service they want. We are thrilled that Apple is opening up the iPhone and we look forward to taking part in future application development.”

Salmon continued, “As a company we strive to make useful services accessible to everyone. There will be more innovation for businesses and consumers coming from sipgate this year, so keep your eyes open for more news.”

The sipgate service is currently in an invitation-only beta program. Details on future service offerings will be made available at the time as products and services become generally available to consumers and businesses. sipgate, Inc. is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Source: sipgate Inc.