Free Mobile Calls/Chat from your mobile - My First Step to Unplug myself !

Ever since I got hold of my new Nokia E61, I have been busy figuring out all the wonderful features it possess. The sole feature that helps this phone stands out against so many other phones, is Wi-fi. After trying out a bunch of third party softwares for chatting / internet (VOIP) calls, I freezed upon one really cool software - Fring.

Fring is a simple, effective and free to use software. Using Fring, you can go mobile with Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, SIP & Twitter! And if you have a free office Wifi network as luxury, then its absolutely free!! Alternatively you can even use your mobile phone service provider's internet data plan and connect via GPRS.

Here are the 10 steps to freedom (Click on pictures to magnify) :

Get a Wifi-enabled handset and an active Wifi vicinity. I use a Nokia E61 (there's a newer Nokia E61i with a camera available as well) and a Reliance Broadnet Wi-max connection on a Netgear Wireless router. Other good Wifi handsets are the Blackberry Phones and the all new Apple iPhone.

Go to your mobile phone's browser and open www.Fring.com Once you select your handset from the given list and download the software, it will ask you to install it. Follow the steps and make sure you allow this application to use your pre-configured internet connections (GPRS or Wifi).

Once installed, it will show up in your installed applications folder as shown here. Select the application from the menu and let it start. (Yeah if you are wondering, I do have 2 GB of space on my Nokia E61 and hence I can afford to load my cell with so many apps!!)


Fring once started, might take some time initially to download updates or configure itself. Please be patient for the first time. Afterwards, it runs just fine. I have configured my Fring to start every time the phone is rebooted. You can do it too.

The software looks up for the available Access Points. You can favorite them from the list (like your home and office networks) so that they can be used automatically once you come in their vicinity. (So you noticed, huh? Yeah its Hackerz Den; you dare not come Wi-fi phishing!!!)

Once you enter your GTalk/ICQ/Skype/etc usernames and passwords in the form provided, it will connect you to all these chatting/voice-call services using Wifi/GPRS (as opted by you). Once connected, you are done! Voila !! You are unplugged !! (Remember Matrix - The Trilogy??)


All your contacts from your cellphone as well as the logged-in services will be displayed. You can choose to hide your phonebook contacts from here. The colored icons on the left define the status of your friend (Active, Busy, Idle or Away)


Just tapping on a contact, lets you call him/her. The volume can be easily controlled by the joy-stick, just as you were making any other normal phone call using your cell. So now you can call your friend in US by just relaxing in your office bean-bag using the free Wi-fi.


You can even chat with your friend by selecting the 'Options' menu for a contact. The chat is very user-friendly and intuitive just like the voice-call feature. You get alerted by a buzz or a FringTone based upon your phone's activated profile.


Other than GTalk and Skype, there are some more services like MSN Messenger, ICQ, Twitter and SIP. I hope they are able to include Yahoo! Chat as well in the near future. Another useful feature would be to add emoticons for the chat.

One more thing, if somebody finds out how can I enable speaker phone for this application please let me know! (Yeah! I am the laziest person alive!!!)