Until now, VoIP for the RIM platform was just by dialing a local call. TringMe is from India and sees business as a target group.

The TringMe application is the first native BlackBerry app for Internet telephony (Voice over IP). Like similar apps for other smartphone operating systems, it enables telephone calls over the Internet, if a wireless connection is present.

Previous VoIP applications for BlackBerry – for example, Truphone – require a call to a local number to jump into the IP network of the dialling user’s provider. This allows for international calls to save costs. There was no real VoIP application without going through a provider network for the BlackBerry, so this will come as a welcome addition to users. TringMe also offers its customers a dial-up option, if no WLAN is available.

Founder and CEO Yusuf Motiwala said to ZDNet that it was “ironic” that the enterprise market “still uses the traditional cellular phone calls for its communication”. He says Wi-Fi and VoIP are the optimal solution, especially for businesses. “Employees worldwide can call each other over Wi-Fi [...] at no additional cost thereby tremendously reducing the call costs for the same calls over traditional cellular network — a big saving for enterprise of any size.”

Of the technical approach for the BlackBerry App, Motiwala says that technical barriers and restrictions would require innovation.

Besides the basic function TringMe offers extras such as conference calls with one click. It is based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). To download, users have to go to the site bb.tringme.com with a BlackBerry.