Nanu - Free calls from today: thanks to app by S'pore startup

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#1
Downloaded the app but still figuring out how to setup as they keep prompting for password...

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/...p-20140805

http://www.hellonanu.com/

Free calls from today: thanks to app by S'pore startup
With nanu, Gentay hopes to end telco dominance for good
BYJACQUELYN CHEOK
jaccheok@sph.com.sg @JacCheokBT

Calling mobile users . . . nanu is available for download worldwide starting from today, and provides all mobile calls at no charge, including those made to non-nanu mobile users and even landlines
[SINGAPORE] Nanu, "the world's first and a revolutionary mobile call app that's completely free and works anywhere", is available for download worldwide starting from today, thanks to Singapore-based startup Gentay Communications.
Gentay hopes to end phone bills and telco dominance for good, believing everyone should be able to call his or her loved ones for free anytime, anywhere, its chief executive officer, Martin Nygate, told The Business Times.
Its app provides all mobile calls at no charge, including those made to non-nanu mobile users and even landlines.
This is made possible by its proprietary mobile advertising technology; when a user makes a call via nanu, he will hear a short, unobtrusive audio advertisement instead of a ringtone as he waits for the call to be answered. Through this, nanu is able to make money - from advertisers - which it then uses to pay for the cost of all calls.
Its revenue model, though solely dependent on advertising, is sustainable, said Mr Nygate, because being on mobile allows advertisers to track the geo-location of nanu users and target their advertisements accordingly, making it an attractive model for them.
The startup is now in talks with clients like Nestle, KFC and HTC, and aims to inject 97 per cent of its advertising revenue back into the system in the form of free calls for users.
Unlike existing apps like Skype and Viber, nanu works on any network, including 2G, and not just high bandwidth environments like 3G, 4G or WiFi.
It uses an ultra-low bandwidth technology that allows it to provide quality Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls even on 2G, a network used by about five billion people in rural areas and developing countries.
VoIP calls are calls made over the Internet, and not traditional telephone networks.
"This means no more calls breaking up in poor network environments, making nanu the only viable mobile VoIP service in the 2G market, and the most reliable in the rest of the world," said Mr Nygate.
On launch, nanu's infrastructure and network capacity can support 50 million users, but there is no limit to the number of users that can potentially benefit from free nanu calls. The more users the app has, the more calls will be made through its network; the more revenue it generates from advertisers, the more free minutes it can deliver to more users.
Currently, nanu-to-nanu mobile calls are free anywhere.
Mobile calls to landlines are free for 15 minutes, limited to the first one million users, and can be used in 73 global destinations, among them Singapore, China, India, Russia, the UK and US - accounting for close to half of the world's population covered by cellular networks.
Mobile calls to non-nanu mobile phones are free in nine countries, including Singapore, India, Thailand, Germany and the US.
Said Mr Nygate: "Telcos have been exploiting the cost of calls for years by charging high roaming charges. nanu wants to change this as we believe keeping in touch should be made as easy as possible."
He added that the startup has had discussions with global telcos that have expressed interest in licensing nanu's technology, but it has decided to offer the app free-of-charge directly to users instead.
Still, it expects to work with telcos to ensure a win-win value proposition for all. After all, nanu - a VoIP service like Skype and Viber - requires a telco's infrastructure, mobile data or WiFi to work.
Said Clement Teo, a telco analyst at Forrester: "VoIP calls are cheap; the advertisements they draw can help defray costs ... although advertising revenue will only work for players with a large user base. But to run a proper business- grade call service, the telcos do it better. The network investments they have made, and the conferencing services they offer are of business grade ... small players cannot replicate that."
For StarHub, it is through investments in 4G and 3G network upgrades that its mobile customers can enjoy a 99.97 per cent call success rate and 99.99 per cent service availability, said Michael Chang, assistant vice-president of mobility at StarHub.
"Our customers have the assurance that their mobile calls can reach anyone with a mobile phone, regardless of app ... and have come to expect unmatched crystal-clear phone conversations in HD with reduced background noise," he said.
But Forrester's Mr Teo said an important question should be if telcos can defend against non-business grade users who are switching to free calls.
"Probably not," he said. "The only way to defend is to be very customer-focused, and offer the best experience to them. Are telcos doing that? Somewhat, but more can be done, for example, with better billing or roaming charges."
SingTel, a major telco here, is well aware of the new competition in the digital space. It has identified new growth engines - mobile advertising, big data and mobile-led video service - for which telco assets such as "trusted customer relationships" and "billing platforms" give it a competitive advantage, said a spokeswoman.
"We're also actively partnering other telcos, vendors and research institutes, as well as investing in startups with the potential to disrupt adjacent technologies and their traditional operating models," she added.
It seems like nanu - with its technology and bold mission of ending phone bills as we know them - has readied itself to disrupt the telco industry. It launches on Android first, to be followed by iOS and other operating systems later this year.
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#2
Thanks GG for sharing. I am sure many foreign workers and domestic maids will be delighted to know this and they can save money on calling home. Yet another blow to the Telco...first free sms such as Whatsapp and now free calls. No wonder SingTel is investing heavily in Digital.
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#3
The telco will just up the data fee to compensate for their loss of call revenue. Unless the new app does not go through telco network, it does not pose any major threat to the telco industry.
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#4
Thanks GG.

More from the http://www.hellonanu.com/

Does nanu work on my phone?
nanu is currently available on Android. We plan to make it available for iOS and Windows later this year and other operating systems shortly after.

Does nanu support text messaging?
Not yet…but stay tuned. Later this year we plan to launch a very exciting messaging function. And of course it will be free.

OK…so how much data do I need?
Well, 1MB of data will give you approximately 10 minutes of call time, so if your local data SIM card has 1 GB of data that will give you a whopping 10,000 minutes of call – that’s almost 1 week of continuous talk time!
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#5
I think it has a big usability issue that might confuse a lot of non savvy users or frustrate savvy users. Lets see if it's key advantages such as free minutes will overcome this. If the advantages are not enough people might just return back to the platform they are already accustom too.

I might be wrong, but this is what I notice when I used it.

Other than that....

I think it is a great app and has the possibility of killing the other apps provided the competitors cannot replicate their functionality easily as part of an upgrade and people must download and use this app. It is very dependent on advertising and having a huge user base.

They definitely need more people to download and use so that they can keep their key advantages:

1) Free nanu to landlines / non nanu mobiles - Also not sure if 15 mins would be enough to attract people to keep on using it. But definitely useful for short calls. I am referring this to overseas calls mostly.

2) Using 2G to target rural or developing countries which . The 15 mins of free talk time is a boon as it saves a lot of money.

The question is how long does it take to replenish that 15 mins? 15 mins for 1 month? 1 week? 1 day? how can you accumulate more than 15 mins?

They need more advertisers to get more money to give more time....
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#6
I successfully installed and quickly used up the free 15 mins spreading the excitement amongst friends. Voice quality is crystal clear. However needs to have Nanu mates in order to have unlimited talk time - quite similar to whatsapp, viber etc

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/...t-20140806

PUBLISHED AUGUST 06, 2014
Release of nanu app becomes a talking point
Android launch due to its huge market share: developer
BYJACQUELYN CHEOK
jaccheok@sph.com.sg @JacCheokBT
PRINT |EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Nanu, the free call app created by Singapore-based startup Gentay Communications, yesterday generated a buzz when it was finally unveiled - PHOTO: NANU
[SINGAPORE] nanu, the free call app created by Singapore-based startup Gentay Communications, yesterday generated a buzz when it was finally unveiled.
Gentay said the app - which took the startup about eight months to develop and put on the market - was well on its way to getting 100,000 users within the first 24 hours of its launch.
nanu is the world's first mobile voice call app that reportedly works on all networks (even 2G), and provides free voice calls to non-nanu numbers (mobile users who have not installed the app on their smartphones) and landlines, including calls made overseas.
It follows a mobile advertising revenue model - nanu users will hear an audio advertisement instead of a ringtone while waiting for a call to be answered.
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#7
Wow, this is cool.

Could it be the next "whatsapp"?

I think the birth of data 3G-4G has made many things possible and brought us convenience as a whole. The 3 telcos are definitely not going to like it. Their revenue sources are being eaten away by disruptive technology. I hated the fact telcos capped their data from 12GB previously.

I'm going to share with my friends.
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#8
(05-08-2014, 09:43 AM)freedom Wrote: The telco will just up the data fee to compensate for their loss of call revenue. Unless the new app does not go through telco network, it does not pose any major threat to the telco industry.

Yup. The telcos will probably adjust the data plan pricing.

Or, they might just buy over Nanu. May be a good acquisition for Singtel. Smile
My Dividend Investing Blog
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#9
It still need a phone, with sim card, and data. So it is not reallt exactly "free". Even at home, wifi still needed. Telco still can earn something from it.
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#10
A timely re-post of an "old" news. Telcos is a stakeholder of the OTT service market, and will remain as an indispensable one...Big Grin

(vested in M1)

Telcos ‘may cut network investments’ if they can’t ride on app messaging wave

SINGAPORE — Telcos and over-the-top (OTT) providers such as messaging giant WhatsApp need to work out their relationship to avoid the risk of the former cutting back on network investments as they have not found a way to monetise the growing popularity of OTT services, analysts said, following the SingTel Chief Executive’s call to allow telcos to charge OTT providers for the use of their network.

“If this is not resolved in some way, then you will see the freeze on further network investments. Networks choke. The little money that carriers are getting does not justify new investment; networks get even slower over time. Carriers need to make money to further continue the investment in critical infrastructure,” Mr Dustin Kehoe, Programme Director for Telecoms at market research and advisory firm IDC (Asia Pacific), said yesterday.

OTT providers deliver messages, video and other media over the Internet and bypass traditional telco distribution. The surge in OTT providers such as WhatsApp, which provides free messaging and other services, has cut deeply into the traditional revenue sources for the telcos.

However, even as the ground becomes less sweet for the telcos, regulators are unlikely to pave the way to resolve this in the near term, leaving it up to the players involved to work out mutually-beneficial agreements.

For now, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) is taking a wait-and-see approach. In its response to TODAY, the regulator said yesterday that it is closely “monitoring market developments and international discussions” on the interactions between telcos and OTT players.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/tel...aging-wave
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