Fring, a mobile Internet communications service and community, is now one of the earliest companies to bring Voice-over-IP (VoIP) support over the 3G data network to its iPhone app.
Though the news may have been buried by iPad mania, Apple on Wednesday announced that, via the new iPhone SDK, VoIP calls over 3G in addition to those made over Wi-Fi are now allowed.
The very first app to announce support for the newly allowed was iCall, another VoIP software provider. iCall may have beat Fring and others to the punch, but Fring has an advantage in that it also provides video conferencing support in addition to the standard voice and chat features.
Naturally, video calls are one-way because the iPhone does not don a camera on its front-side, but nevertheless the feature still helps Fring stand out among other VoIP apps.
According to tests run by CNet, however, AT&T’s 3G network isn’t really the best way to go about running video calls, which saw some slowing and cutting out when the Wi-Fi was abandoned for 3G. Still, even desktop applications experience their fair share of glitchy video conferences, even while connected over seemingly solid ethernet connections.
To get started with the new update, Fring users need only restart the app (or in some cases the phone) to refresh the app, removing the previous 3G restriction.
