T-Mobile Turns Facebook Chat Into Free Calls With App

19.04.2011
just launched a free, easy-to-use voice-chat application called Bobsled that allows people to call their friends from within the Facebook application or leave a voice message with one click.

Bobsleds, you may remember from the last Winter Olympics, come screaming down their icy tracks at hellish and sometimes deadly speeds. The early reports suggest that Skype and other VoIP providers may indeed never know what hit them once word gets out to Facebook's half a billion users.

calls the voice chat app a "Skype killer" because it lets you call people on your Facebook friends list immediately, rather than requiring them to set up a Skype account first. The people you call don't need to have the app installed, although they do need a headset or mic and speakers. It works on both Macs and PCs.

Vivox and T-Mobile claim that 88 percent of Facebook users they surveyed wanted voice chat. It may be a social lifesaver for people whose devotion to their virtual life is such that their friends don't remember what they sound like over the phone.

T-Mobile exec Brad Duea told that the point of "Bobsled" is to put T-Mobile's brand--soon to --before more people. T-Mobile could also add advertising or start charging for calls from PCs to phones.

The product has been test-marketed on Facebook under the brand name Vring, with T-Mobile's connection to the project undisclosed.