If making VoIP (Voice over the Internet) calls from your home was the buzz of yesterday, making VoIP calls from your cell is the buzz of today. EQO Communications, a provider of mobile Internet phone services, announced its new EQO Mobile version. The new version will let users make international and long distance calls as well as send and receive IM and text messages on their mobile phones at local calling and messaging rates.

 

The new EQO (pronounced "echo") service is a free downloadable software application available on the EQO Web page. After signing up on the site you'll receive an SMS link on your phone for download. While you can send instant messages through EQO on many of your favorite IM services--AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger--the application doesn't allow you to call your contacts on these programs. EQO's real perk is giving you the ability to call any landline or mobile phone in the world through a local gateway (and thus at local rates). Although calls from one EQO user to another EQO user are free, calling a regular mobile or landline phone requires EQO Out credit. When you use EQO Out credit, your call will be routed through EQO's local access gateway and trigger your phone's cellular calling network. To use EQO on your phone you'll need a data plan and a voice plan that allows you to call local numbers.

 

We got some time to test out EQO's new mobile application on a BlackBerry Pearl. The easily navigable interface makes chatting through numerous IM services extremely easy. We especially liked the ability to close certain IM network lists to make our list more succinct. While we didn't get to try out any overseas phone calls, we called one of our colleagues here in New York on his cell phone. We could hear him just fine, but he reported a slight delay on his end. We were able to try an EQO-to-EQO call with EQO's CEO Bill Tam. We heard Bill quite clearly on the other end and found the calls to go through very quickly. In both cases the voice quality was much clearer than calls over a Wi-Fi network.

 

Unlike some of the other services we've looked at, EQO's new mobile application is available for hundreds of mainstream mobile handsets. Its Java application is available for BlackBerrys, a number of Motorola devices, and many more. A Windows Mobile version is expected to be released in the coming months. Check out www.eqo.com for a full list of supported handsets.