So far, keeping in touch with friends and family has been a costly affair when being away on holiday. However, with a Vopium software application downloaded directly to your mobile phone, cheap calls can be made to e.g. Thailand, Spain or Turkey. Moreover, you get the first 15 minutes free of charge.

Receiving a high mobile phone bill is always an unpleasant experience, and especially sky-high prices on international mobile calls can make a quick ending to a conversation. A call from a mobile phone in the UK to e.g. a hotel in Turkey costs about £1 per minute. But a new software application for mobile phones called Vopium makes it easy to make cheap international calls. A phone call from the UK to a fixed line or mobile phone in Thailand only costs 2 pence plus the local UK mobile rate – that is roughly the same price as calling from London to Birmingham.

Telefónica Europe announces the roll-out of IP-based international calling services, built on the JAJAH IP Communications Platform, across its O2 businesses in Europe.

The first of these services -- O2 Global Friends -- gives O2 customers in Germany the ability to make international calls by dialing a local number. It is the first time a top tier operator has launched IP-based mobile services to its customers, and comes just six months after its acquisition of JAJAH.

The JAJAH IP Communications Platform gives Telefónica the ability to bring a wide range of innovative new calling solutions and enhanced voice services to more than 54 million O2 customers across Europe, dramatically cutting the cost of long distance calling from mobile phones.

Speakeasy has once again extended their free phone offer, which has successfully eliminated one of the last barriers to VoIP adoption. Companies interested in switching to VoIP will find that now may be the perfect time to switch, thanks to the extension of Speakeasy's free phone promotion and the mobility-enhancing, time-saving features associated with VoIP, which are validated during busy summer schedules.

Hosted Voice features make it easy for employees to essentially bring the office with them, without being tethered to a desk or giving out personal numbers. Users can make and receive calls from their office phone number, whether they're in the office or they're actually using their home, mobile or even hotel phones.

Skype announces a new version of the SkypeKit Beta SDK that works on Windows (x86) and Mac OS X. Now almost any desktop application can offer Skype conversations — including video, voice, and text — without the need for users to separately download Skype software. Interested desktop developers can visit http://developer.skype.com/signup to request an invitation to the beta.

This announcement comes just a few weeks after our first announcement about SkypeKit being compatible with the Linux operating system. SkypeKit is a new software development kit that enables hardware and software makers to add Skype functionality to their devices and applications.

VoX Communications is pleased to announced that its new international cell phone calling app is now available at GetJar.com, the world’s second largest app store with over 2 million download requests per day and over 1 billion downloads to date.

Pervasip’s Chief Information Officer, Mark Richards, noted, “We are pleased with our continued push of applications to the mass market of mobile phone users worldwide. More and more, we are seeing people move to a mobile VoIP application for use over 3G or Vo3G, as it is called, and awareness of the apps we offer is starting to build.

fring announces that it is being forced to stop its 4 years of Skype interconnectivity following threat of legal action. Skype’s anti-competitive ambush comes in the wake of fring’s mobile video calling on iPhone 4 launch, which continues to set the standard in rich mobile internet communication.

Since its foundation in 2006, fring’s rich mobile communications have been available to both fring users and open 3rd party networks including GoogleTalk, SIP, Twitter and, until now, Skype. However, despite fring expanding its network capacity over the last days to serve its enlarged user base, Skype is refusing to allow fring to restore connectivity to Skype. Accordingly, fringsters will no longer be able to communicate with their Skype friends the way they want, but can invite their Skype friends to join fring and enjoy unrestricted mobile video calling from any mobile phone, chat and voice services without restriction to a user’s mobile operator and the freedom to choose internet connectivity (3G/4G/WiFi).

deltathree announces the launch of joip Mobile. joip Mobile is a new cellular phone application providing low cost mobile calls over GSM as well as WiFi networks. It currently offers calling packages in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and is available for users worldwide. Cellular operating systems supported by joip Mobile currently include the iPhone, Google Android and Nokia Symbian, with support for the Windows Mobile operating system and Blackberry expected soon.

VoicePulse has been officially tested and named a verified VoIP operator for Acrobits Softphone app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Acrobits is a privately owned software development company with a focus on mobile software development.

For many VoIP users, getting the correct settings for your provider in a SIP client can be a complicated process. Customers will only have to enter their VoicePulse SIP credentials and password to get started using Acrobits Softphone. The SIP app from Acrobits costs just $7.99 in iTunes. Download the SIP app here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/acrobits-softphone-sip-phone/id314192799?mt=8. VoicePulse will also be participating in upcoming beta testing for Acrobits softphone application for the Android OS.

Junto Telecom selected VocalTec's suite of VoIP products for the evolution of its Class-5 and IP-Centrex VoIP network. Junto Telecom will be replacing its existing telephony solution with VocalTec's Essentra family of products for a more robust, carrier grade and scalable offering. Junto Telecom, will be using VocalTec's Essentra BAX VoIP Application Server, to bring the latest in enterprise IP telephony services to its subscribers. In conjunction with VocalTec's Essentra CX and Essentra EX solutions, Junto Telecom will also be optimizing its IP-to-PSTN and IP-to-IP interconnection services. In addition, Junto Telecom subscribers will enjoy advanced services such as video calling, calling-card and prepaid services. Designed for deployment in Brazil, the VocalTec solution provides full regulatory compliance and meets local requirements for Number Portability services.

CounterPath announces a new release of its Bria multimedia softphone. With analysts forecasting that unified communications client shipments will grow 65 percent annually through 2015, Bria 3.1 is ideal for enterprises that want to replace their deskphones or integrate a UC application as an adjunct to their IP phone solutions.

CounterPath's Bria 3.1 is a highly secure, standards-based softphone that enables voice and high-definition (1280x720p) video calls. With this latest version, Bria has expanded its interoperability to integrate seamlessly with a broader variety of enterprise and carrier infrastructure equipment from major vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, BroadSoft, Cisco, NEC and Nokia Siemens Networks. Bria also supports Asterisk-based telephony systems.

Unified Communications is coming of age and it's being driven by the urgent demand for SIP trunking, which lowers operating costs and delivers rapid ROI. To address the need for information on the what, why and how of Unified Communications and SIP trunking, Ingate Systems is partnering with TMC, thought-leaders and vendors in the space to present the new SIP Trunk-Unified Communications Summit at ITEXPO West 2010.

Free to all ITEXPO attendees, the Summit is a three-day seminar series providing in-depth educational information on SIP trunking and Unified Communications. The Summit will include general information panels and technical insight sessions from both the service provider and enterprise perspectives, and will feature visionaries driving the industry.

Celebrate Independence Day and call home all day, free of charge on the 4th of July. Rebtel is offering unlimited free calling to the U.S. from 48 countries in celebration of the American Independence Day. Free calling is offered from Eastern Standard Time (UTC - 5) to PST = Pacific Standard Time (UTC - 8) (State of Alaska and Hawaii excluded).

"We know it's important to stay in touch with your friends or loved ones without paying too much and that is why Rebtel was founded. Since Independence Day is a big celebration for our users we want to help them re-connect by making the calling free on that day. We also want to show people calling the United States that you can just call as normal with local numbers from Rebtel and save up to 95%," said Andreas Bernström, Rebtel's CEO. "We are growing rapidly and have over four million users who stay in touch with their friends or loved ones using our services from over 190 countries."

The number of mobile VoIP minutes carried annually on 3G and 4G networks will rise from 15 billion minutes in 2010 to 470.6 billion by 2015, finds a new report from Juniper Research.

Mobile VoIP traffic will see steady rises in all regions over the forecast period, but particularly in developed markets, due to the increasing ubiquity of 3G networks.