Blueface, Ireland’s leading internet telephony provider has developed an innovative new app which gives iPhone users a ‘virtual landline number’ and can save users up to 90% on calls.
The Blueface ‘Banter’ App eliminates the need for residential and business customers to pay costly line rental fees, saving them an average of €25 per month. Once users download the app and enter their details they are given a virtual geographic number depending on their desired location (Dublin 01, Galway 091, Cork 021 etc), and their account is credited with 50c free trial credit. Users can then make and receive calls from the virtual landline number via their iPhone handset.
Making a call via the app is simple. Users can access their iPhone address book through the app and select a contact. When the user presses ‘call’ the app sends a message to the Blueface hub to call the user first and, once answered, call the person they wish to contact.
Alan Foy, CEO, Blueface, commented: “We identified a gap in the business and residential marketplace for a cost saving app that can provide the option of a landline number without the line rental fee. While small entrepreneurial businesses need to provide customers with a landline number, they can do without the extra costs associated with a landline contract. Similarly, 30% of the residential population of Ireland no longer have a landline, but often do not wish to make expensive calls from their mobile phones. The Blueface Banter App provides a solution to all these needs.”
As well as the saving on line rental fees, customers can make significant savings on calls made via the app, particularly on international calls. A call from Ireland to Australia, for example, made from a traditional mobile network, would cost the user from €1.46 to €2 per minute. However, if the same call is made via the Blueface Banter App, the call would cost as low as 9.7c per minute, a saving of up to 96%.
Blueface developed the award winning app in connection with Vennetics, an innovator in telecommunication and IT application solutions, using GSM OneAPI specifications. This partnership between Blueface and Vennetics resulted in the companies winning the North / South Collaboration Award at the Irish Times Innovation Awards 2011. The awards celebrate companies that have the ability, not only to come up with great ideas, but to take those great ideas and ensure they add significant value to all users and can be applied to create tangible organisational and business impact. It is clear that the Blueface Banter app successfully fulfils these criteria.
The Blueface Banter App is free to download and is available now on the iTunes store. See further details at www.blueface.ie or access from the iTunes store. If you don’t have an iPhone, Blueface has an alternative service ‘goMobile’ which can be viewed here. The goMobile service allows all mobile users to access very low international call rates.
For more information, please consult www.blueface.ie or contact Alan Haverty at +353 (0) 1 524 2009
