fring, incase you haven’t heard about it, is “a mobile internet service and community.” In other words, fring brings together all of your main social networks together into one application and adds the ability to call other fring users. Not only does fring allow you to call any other user for free over WiFi, but it also lets you use services like Skype, AIM, Google Talk, Twitter, Yahoo, and more. You can even connect to your SIP account (there are many SIP providers, and most allow you to make cheap calls, check out fring’s SIP partners here) and Skype account and use your minutes to call regular telephones.

So, lets sum it up: free calls over WiFi to all of your fring friends, and a convinient way to easily chat with all of your social networks (sorry, no Facebook or Myspace though.) Now, lets talk about what this replaces. Since the calls completely bypass your mobile carrier and run completely off of the wireless internet around you, there is no need for an expensive voice plan if you are mostly near WiFi hotspots.  Next, the chats save you from the constant onslaught of SMS texting fees. Not only can you chat for free with your friends, but unlike SMS text messages they will be more like instant messages shooting at you the second the message has been sent. So fring saves you from steep phone bills by getting rid of the need for tons of minutes and a large texting plan. But obviously, you will still need your SMS and voice plans when you aren’t near a WiFi hotspot, so don’t think about ditching your plans and going completely fring based.

After doing a quick test of fring’s pre-release software, it works pretty well. The call quality isn’t amazing, and the chat interface isn’t perfect, but for a beta that was just released in the past couple of days, that’s fine. What’s really amazing is that the service is completely free, and you will be saving money you normally spend on minutes and SMS text messaging  The application is available for download through Installer.app, but be sure to add the source “http://fring.com/iphone.xml” to be able to grab the app. For more information on fring, and its VoIP chatting glory, check it out @ fring.com

Filed under: Technology