O2 pops out vital new feature: Making phone calls from phones
TU Go VoIP app goes live
O2 has launched TU Go, the awaited VoIP service allowing customers to make and receive calls from five devices at the same time.
The move is no surprise: O2 has been promising TU Go for a while, but its now available to all contract customers who can sign up and download the apps for iOS, Android and Windows 7. Calls are routed to those devices over fixed, cellular or Wi-Fi networks as appropriate with incoming calls ringing on up to five devices simultaneously as O2 turns voice into a service as flexible as any other.
It's a bit like using Skype, only better integrated into the traditional telephony network and billed from the existing tariff rather than requiring SkypeOut minutes. So a customer can send SMS messages and make voice calls from a PC just as though one were on a mobile phone, without having to change numbers and in the knowledge that if one were wandering the Scottish hills then the calls should still arrive over the 2G cellular network.
But TU Go is bigger that that: it's about recognising that voice is a service just like any other, the carrying medium being irrelevant. An O2 customer is an account addressed by a number, so calls to the number should be routed to the customer over whatever technology they choose to use - even if they one day decide to take their connectivity elsewhere.
For that is part of the plan, to allow customers of other telcos to buy a voice service from O2 just as they might subscribe to GMail, NetFlix or Skype, but with access to O2's Priority services (tickets, vouchers and so forth), O2's billing systems and other services offered by the company, which is walking towards a world where data is entirely decoupled from services. O2 wants to plant a flag firmly on both sides of the fence.
TU Go isn't being pushed very hard, but it shouldn't be underrated as another VoIP play. It's a critical step in the evolution of mobile telecommunications. Whether it’s the right step is more debatable, but the most important thing now will be the quality of experience O2 can offer to those customers who choose to try out the service, it won't take much to push customers away but in the long term this could be one of the most important products O2 has ever launched. ®
COMMENTS
"connected to the cafeteria's WiFi and in most palaces you can."
Most of us plebs don't live in palaces though. Lucky you.
Works perfect- but not complete yet
I have been using it for few days now to send./receive calls and text message. True, it will use your contract and not cheaper than Skype. that is not the point of this app at all. it is for when you are using you Ipad and you receive phones calls, text etc, you can use the Ipad to answer or write texts. You don't have to worry if the phone is not next to you while using your Ipad. If you are like me, you like to go and have a cup of coffee at your beloved cafeteria and reading the news while connecting to their WiFi, and you got a phone call or a text message, surely it is far easier to use the Ipad ... No? I can name many other situations, however, each has his own way of living. It got my 5 stars, still need to implement MMS and video call.
Yup...'working on support for business contracts'
From http://www.o2.co.uk/tugo/want-it :
Only available for Pay Monthly at the moment. Calls and texts come out of your bundle. We're working on TU Go for Pay and Go and Business customers.
AND
The advantage is the ability to have one number wherever you are. That's it!
