3G. Wireless Communication Solutions

EQO Communications, a leading developer of presence-enabled calling and instant messaging solutions and services, today announced immediate availability of EQO Mobile for Skype on the Palm TREO 650 and Motorola ROKR, SLVR, and RAZR handsets. So far, EQO brings the number of EQO-supported handset models to more than 45, including some of the most popular devices from Nokia, Motorola, Palm, and Sony-Ericsson.

EQO Mobile for Skype lets users make and receive calls, send Instant Messages, and view presence information about their buddies over the Skype network. EQO is a plugin which runs on your computer, connecting your Skype user account to your mobile phone via EQO’s secure, always-on network. As long as EQO is running on your mobile phone and your computer, and Skype is still connected to the Skype network, you can easily use EQO software to keep in touch with your buddies as you move about on your mobile phone.

When you call a Skype buddy or another number through the EQO client, or someone calls you from Skype, EQO routes the call to your phone over your regular wireless voice service using SkypeOut. This means you can truly make and receive Skype calls from anywhere on your handset, without needing a highly advanced 3G mobile phone and without being connected to a high-speed wireless data network.

For more details of free Beta EQO(pronounced “echo”) here.

Mobile operators the world over fleece their customers for making roaming calls and for making international calls. However, all this could soon change. Using popular services such as Skype, users can make international calls and talk for unlimited lengths of time, for a flat monthly fee of around $20 or less.

This has started in Europe where Italian operator 3 Italia, has introduced a VOIP service in February this year. For around 5 cents per hour – a flat monthly fee of around $18 - subscribers can call fixed-line phones in Japan, South Korea, Australia and most of Western Europe, and both fixed and mobile numbers in the United States, China, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Since it needs a broadband Internet connection, VOIP works well only on mobile phones that use high-speed third-generation networks, making the technology particularly attractive to 3 Italia, which does not have a second-generation network. But mobile VOIP is also potentially appealing to the bigger mobile phone companies that, in addition to underused 3G networks, have older networks clogged with traffic.

For several years, companies like Skype have been using VOIP to offer free calls between computers, and in the process they have stolen traffic from traditional fixed-line phone companies. In the hands of mobile phone service providers, the same technology raises the stakes. According to a report by the Boston-based consultancy Pyramid Research, $200 billion of fixed-line phone traffic could move to mobile networks in the coming years.

Read more: Trends of VoIP via Cellphones