(L – R) – Vikas Saxena, CEO Nimbuzz and Udit Mehrotra, CEO, Spectranet l…
Nimbuzz Messenger already enjoys the reputation of being one of the most widely used free messaging apps. It’s been long since Nimbuzz has provided free messaging and free audio and video calls to its users. However, so far, these facilities were limited only to peer-to-peer connections. That is, to make free calls using Nimbuzz, both the caller and the receiver needed to be the users of Nimbuzz, and online.
But today, stepping beyond these usual services of free communication apps, Nimbuzz has brought to Indian consumers the facility to make calls to international phone numbers at rates that are nearly as cheap as the local rates.
Today, 22 October 2013, Nimbuzz announced its partnership with Spectranet hello ip. Spectranet claims to be India’s fastest growing internet services provider. By entering into this partnership, Nimbuzz aims to bring to users across India the facility to call directly to phones in other countries at very affordable rates. For example, using this service, users in India can call USA, Canada or UK at the rate of just 60 paise per minute. However, the calling rates aren’t the same for all countries. It may cost a little more to call the phone numbers of some other countries. The call rates can be found out from the Spectranet’s website.
Of course, apps like MagicJack are already offering free international calls directly to phone numbers. However, as far as I know, MajickJack only makes available free calling to just American and Canadian numbers, and of course, can’t be used to share messages and media like Nimbuzz. By using Nimbuzz, anyone in India can make cheap (but not free) calls to numbers all over the world. However, if one is out of India, this facility can’t be used to call Indian numbers.
By making this facility available to consumers in India, Nimbuzz has become the first player in India to offer such inexpensive calling rates for international calls directly to phone numbers. Talking about this latest feature, Vikas Saxena, CEO, Nimbuzz, said, “Nimbuzz has always believed in creating an ecosystem that brings the world together. We are extremely confident that our partnership with Spectranet hello ip will allow our Indian users to reach out to their loved ones across the world without cost concerns. The Spectranet hello ip is a unique proposition that allows Nimbuzz users to make international calls at rates almost 450% less than those that are available in the market today.’’
This facility will be available across all smartphone platforms and data networks and Wi-Fi from today. And to avail the cheap calling facility of Spectranet hello ip, users only need to have an account on Nimbuzz and buy the calling credit. This is to be a pre-paid service and users can recharge their account using credit cards. Soon, it is to be hoped, several other payment options would be made available and charging the Nimbuzz account will become as easy as buying a recharge coupon from a retail store.
All in all, it looks like a very promising prospect for people who need to make frequent international calls. Of course, free peer to peer calls are quite easy to make now using various apps and services like Skype and Google Hangouts. However, it is not always possible for both the caller and the receiver of the call to be available online and using the particular app at the same time. In such situations, NImbuzz and Spectranet Hello ip’s inexpensive call rates can mean a big money saver as they will let users call directly to phones without burning a big hole in their pockets.
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How far can a person go to fulfill the dreams of someone else?
Find out in the pages of Dream’s Sake, a general fiction novel by Jyoti Arora. For more information and free preview of first chapter click visit: www,jyotiarora.com
