Sept. 14, 2007 — For all of the services cell phones offer — calls, pictures, text messages, music — it still often costs more than a dollar a minute to ring international numbers. And for callers who live in Canada, Mexico, or Russia, domestic long distance charges can be 30 cents per minute.
A Vancouver-based company is hoping to change that. Eqo (pronounced "echo") Communications has developed software that, when downloaded to a cell phone, uses the Internet to make cheap calls, locally or abroad.
The model is similar to Skype, said Bill Tam, CEO of Eqo, referring to the free software that allows users to make calls over the Internet from their computers. A Skype user can call another Skype user for free, or call a non-Skype user very cheaply.
But while Skype can be used on some handheld computers, it cannot be used on all mobile phones.
Enter Eqo. It works on standard mobile phones that have basic Internet service. First, a user downloads Eqo's software to the phone. Next, the software automatically organizes existing contacts into the Eqo application.
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Once the contacts are set up, the phone owner can see which contacts are Eqo users. They can be called for free, whether they live in the next county or the next country.
"We like to say that it takes your local minutes and turns them into international minutes," said co-founder and chief software architect Jeff LaPorte, who developed the technology that makes Eqo work.
If a user calls a contact who does not have Eqo, it costs about 2 cents a minute.
