iPod Touch as a VOIP Phone: Canadian HowTo

It’s so close to being a usable reality for Canadians now – cheap mobile VOIP wherever you have wifi access. Here’s what you need:

1. A mobile device such as an iPod Touch 2nd gen or an iPhone.
2. Fring installed on your mobile device
3. An account at vbuzzer. You will need their BuzzMe and BuzzOut services.

The short story is this: Get vbuzzer’s BuzzMe ($25/yr) and BuzzOut ($15/mo). Install Fring on your iPod/iPhone. Start Fring on your iPod/iPhone and go to “More”/”Add Ons”/”SIP”/”SIP Other”. Input your vbuzzer username and password and set the proxy to “vbuzzer.com”. Voila, you have VOIP.

Detailed instructions after the break:

vbuzzer has two separate services you will need. BuzzMe allows you to reserve a phone number, tie it to your account, and have people call you. BuzzOut allows you to make calls to normal phone numbers through your vbuzzer account. vbuzzer currently lists BuzzMe phone number availability in the following area codes in Canada: 204 250 403 416 418 514 613 780 819. This is NOT a complete list however and needs to be updated. I just got a 604 area code number. Check the list yourself when you log in and try to buy a BuzzMe number.

In case anyone is interested these area codes in the US have BuzzMe service as well: 202 212 248 303 305 310 312 321 347 404 407 408 415 425 617 646 650 678 786 858 863 949.

You will need to add at least $40 to your vbuzzer account to get started. $25 will get you a BuzzMe number for a year for incoming calls, and $15 is for the first month of BuzzOut calling to other numbers. If you have any problems message the support staff at vbuzzer; I found them to be very helpful.

Next, you will need to set up your Fring account. The easiest way is to just get the free Fring app on the app store.

Start up Fring, touch the “More…” button and you will be presented with a screen like this:

More... screen

Select “Add-Ons”

Add-ons Screen

Select “SIP”

SIP

Then “Other”

Other

Use your vbuzzer login and password, and set the proxy to “vbuzzer.com” without the quotes. You’re all set up! Open up the dialer dial a number, and touch the green “SIP” button to call using your vbuzzer account.

Green SIP button to call

You can also call any of your contacts in your address book directly from Fring.

Click on a name in the address book

There is still one issue keeping this from being fully useful and that is Fring has yet to update their iPod/iPhone app to include push notifications. They are at work on it though so expect an update soon. Please comment with your experiences.