Christian Lillelund named new Head of Product Management at Vopium

Vopium is very pleased to announce the appointment of Christian Lillelund as its new Head of Product Management. Christian brings extensive mobile technology and market experience to Vopium.

Before joining Vopium, Christian worked 11 years for Nokia in many diverse product management roles, spending the last two as senior product manager for the Finnish company’s smartphone platform. He will now work closely with Vopium’s R&D teams to plan and implement the product road map across mobile and desktop applications.

Prior to Nokia, Christian was an IT consultant with CSC and a teacher at the Aarhus School of Business. Christian will work out of the Vopium Copenhagen office.

Win an iPad 2 – Your best travel companion ever!

Travel season 2011 is heating up with most of you itching to get away. Make your vacation the best ever by winning the best travel companion ever, an iPad 2!

Join in the fun and enter “Vopium’s iPad 2 Surprise.” Contest runs from August 01, 2011 (12:00 CET) – August 30, 2011 (12:00 CET) on Facebook. The winner will be announced on August 31st, 2011.

To join, just “Like” Vopium on our Facebook page and then fill out the iPad 2 contest entry form. That’s it, good luck!

Make Vopium calls from your PC

We are proud to announce the launch of Vopium Desktop (beta). Vopium Desktop gives you all the cool features you are used to from your mobile: Free calls to other Vopium users when they are online on mobile or PC; Cheap international calls and SMS to any phone number in the world; Chat with your friends on Facebook, MSN, Gtalk, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ from one consolidated contact list.

People know it is you calling, since they see your phone number. If they miss the call, they can call you back on your mobile.

You share your phone number, call history, contact book and balance between the mobile and the PC. If other Vopium users call you, it rings both on your PC and mobile. If you are not online, you receive the call as a regular mobile call. Pretty cool, no?

Vopium Desktop is available for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Vopium for MAC will be available soon.

Read more about Vopium Desktop and download it here

Unlimited mobile to mobile calls to Europe & USA

Vopium has launched a new call plan that enables you to call as much as you like from your mobile to any mobile and landline in 31 European countries, as well as the USA and Canada for one low monthly price.

The deal gives anyone, from businesses to families, unlimited mobile phone calling and 100 SMS to other mobile users in 33 countries for only €79.95 per month, no matter where you are calling from around the world. The new call plan will be available to the first 10,000 subscribers and a fair usage policy applies.

“Europe Mobile Unlimited” as the plan is aptly called, will be especially attractive to companies working with European and North American clients. Businesses will now be able to stay in touch always with their European and North American colleagues, as well as always stay in budget, because they can take advantage of unlimited mobile calling at a fixed low monthly price.

A quick comparison between mobile carrier rates in the USA, Europe and Australia demonstrates how many minutes you typically get when calling from these regions to Europe for €79.95: When calling from a mobile in the USA to a mobile in Europe, you typically get 60-90 min for €79.95. From a mobile in the UK to one in another European country, you get 85 -100 min, and from Australia, only 45-75 min. With Vopium, it’s all you can talk for the same price – €79.95!

“We are extremely excited to be launching our “Europe Mobile Unlimited” call plan. We have received numerous requests from business clients to provide them with a European-wide plan similar to our “Unlimited Call the World” plan. The key difference, businessmen wanting a mobile to mobile solution for Europe and North America unlike our “Call the World” plan, which provides unlimited calling to fixed lines and in select countries, to mobiles,” says Tanveer Sharif, Vopium CEO.

He continues, “Europe Mobile Unlimited gives companies and consumers an easy and cost effective way to talk mobile to mobile, regardless of where you are located. Besides businesses using it, I imagine many parents will want to take advantage of the plan, as an inexpensive way to keep in constant touch with their kids studying abroad.”

Vopium announces Erik Neraal as Chief Operating Officer

Vopium, a leading innovator in mobile global communications, is pleased to announce the appointment of Erik Neraal as Chief Operating Officer. With over 20 years experience in the IT and telecommunications sectors, Erik will take a leading role in all operations at Vopium.

Prior to joining Vopium, Neraal held several senior strategic and operational management roles, including with companies Digital Equipment (DEC), AT&T and Sprint International. In his last position, Erik was CEO at mobile software developer, Plutolife, a company he turned around to become an industry leader and later sold to stock-listed, Jumbuck Ltd.

“Vopium’s present focus is to take advantage of the growing global demand for an app-based calling solution like ours. We feel Erik’s focus and determination as a leader, coupled with his industry expertise and successful track record will help Vopium meet this challenge and take us to the next level,” said Christian Eyde Møller, Vopium Chairman of the Board.

Vopium technology enables mobile phone users to make international calls at the reduced price and exceptional sound quality of a local phone call without the need of a WiFi or 3G connection. Users can also take advantage of low cost SMS, as well as integrated free instant messaging. Vopium is currently available on Apple iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Java platforms.

“This is a very exciting time for innovative, application-based mobile service providers like Vopium. Having a unique and easy to use product like ours makes us very attractive to both consumers and industry partners. I look forward to the challenge of shaping our global operations and services to better realize this opportunity,” said Erik Neraal, Vopium Chief Operating Officer.

Win a Samsung Galaxy S II

Summer is almost here. It’s getting hot and Vopium has a great way to kick off your summer:

Go to our Vopium Facebook page and take part in our Hot Summer Surprise contest to win a Samsung Galaxy S II. 10 lucky winners will also get 10 EURO call credits.

Hurry up and enter. Contest ends June 23, 2011.

If you are not already a fan, “Like” our Vopium Facebook page and stay tuned for plenty of more contests, news and updates.

Hurry up and make your summer the hottest and best ever with a new Samsung Galaxy S II from Vopium. Take part now!

Win a Thank-you-Mom 20 Euro credit

With Mothers day just around the corner, Vopium has launched an exciting Facebook campaign to give away free calling vouchers:

You just need to post on our wall why your Mom is so special, and you get a chance to win 20 Euro calling credit. 10 winners will be announced on 9th May 2011.

If you are interested click on our Mother’s Day Facebook contest.

If you are not already a fan, “Like” our Vopium Facebook page and stay tuned for contests, news and other updates. We have received great response from our fans expressing their love for their mothers on this special day. So hurry up, pay tribute to your mom on Vopium Facebook wall and you could be amongst our 10 lucky winners.

Free calls and SMS to Japan

Following the devastating earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan, we have decided not to charge customers for Call and SMS to Japan until 1 April 2011 1 May 2011 (extended). Our thoughts go out to the region and the people affected.

New business model for telcos and ISPs with Vopium white label

Vopium’s white label solution makes it possible for partners, with or without a mobile service offering, to provide Vopium’s voice and messaging services under their own brand. The white label solution is a first step towards new partnerships and collaborations with telcos, who may previously have considered VoIP companies a threat rather than an opportunity.

“With the white label turn-key solution, telcos can get to market fast with their own brand and visual identity, using a proven and well-tested solution, instead of investing in a lengthy and costly VoIP development process over numerous handsets,” says Tanveer Sharif, CEO of Vopium.

We have already signed agreements with Canadian Convergia Networks and Swiss TEL4LESS, and are now reaching out to other potential partners looking to join the booming mobile VoIP market.

Visit us at the Mobile World Congress
Our indirect sales team is in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress.
Come visit us at Hall 2, Booth 2A 05 to learn more about Vopium and our white label solution.

Find more information about our mobile VoIP white label solution
Read the white label press release

One third of Vopium calls now on WiFi or 3G data

More and more users are using Vopium on Smartphones with a WiFi connection and over the last year, calls made on WiFi or the 3G data network, have increased from 19 to 35% of all calls.

When making the call on WiFi, you avoid using the mobile network, which may be particularly interesting if you are abroad and have access to WiFi. Then you avoid the expensive roaming charges. It is also possible to call other Vopium WiFi users 100% free when both are using Vopium WiFi.

“As the smartphone market continues to grow, the usage of WiFi for calls will continue to rise dramatically. All smartphones today have built-in WiFi support and, at the same time, the number of WiFi networks is growing, with hotspots available in an ever increasing number of public places,” explains telecoms analyst, Torben Rune, Netplan.

The majority of Vopium calls are still made using the classical Vopium solution, where international calls are routed as a local call to Vopium. This ensures that you can make calls everywhere with top-notch voice quality, also when you don’t have access to WiFi.

Vopium WiFi/VoIP calling is typically disabled by default, but can be enabled from the Vopium settings on all handsets that support Vopium WiFi. You can see the list of WiFi supported handsets

Visit us at the Mobile World Congress
Vopium is in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress.
Come visit us at Hall 2, Booth 2A 05 to learn more about Vopium and our VoIP reseller and VoIP white label solutions.

You can read the recent press release Mobile data calls soar with a third of phone calls made over WiFi or 3G