T-Mobile has introduced Bobsled by T-Mobile, a new brand aimed at bridging traditional telecommunications and Internet-based voice and data services. The first product under the new brand is the Bobsled application for Facebook, with PC-to-PC calling through the social platform’s chat window. Bobsled also powers the Group Text and Cloud Text applications. The app also includes presence monitoring that shows if friends are active on chat or a voice call, another essential element to complete a unified communications service portfolio.
T-Mobile brings VoIP capabilities to Facebook
In addition to making live voice calls using the application, users can also send voice messages to their friends either privately or via their “walls.” The Bobsled app, available now, is offered with a free download for Facebook users and is not exclusive to T-Mobile customers.
The underlying platform for the voice app is provided by Vivox, a supplier that also partners with Game Publishers and Social Publishers. Before the T-Mobile project, Vivox supported than 50 million people from 200 countries, with over three billion voice chat minutes per month.
While the Facebook app does offer voice communications from the Facebook chat window, it is initially only PC-to-PC communications — no off-net calls are allowed to or from landlines or mobile phones. Calling from a Facebook window on a mobile device is also not yet supported. However, T-Mobile plans to soon add video chat and off-net calling to the Facebook app, along with other apps to Bobsled in the future.
Our observations: Vonage and Skype also offer various levels of integration with Facebook, including a Vonage mobile app for Android and Apple that permits “voice over data” calls and a Skype for Facebook mobile app that integrates chat and contact features. But T-mobile’s Bobsled approach to offer IP-centric applications that work in a multi-platform environment shows that T-Mobile is reaching “outside the box” to create ways it can differentiate itself from other wireless service providers who focus on factors like handsets, coverage, and network speeds. And by offering a T-Mobile branded Voice over IP (VoIP) app for Facebook, T-Mobile sets itself apart from other wireless service providers, expanding its potential to support Facebook’s subscriber base of an estimated 600 million users.
