Adobe Introduces Free Web Conferencing

Holding meetings via the Web can be useful and convenient. But online conferencing is a lot more helpful when you can share things besides spoken words, such as documents, text chats and whiteboards. Though many Web-conferencing solutions offer such features, they can be expensive, complicated or both. A cheaper option is now available with Adobe System Inc.'s Acrobat ConnectNow, a free Web-conferencing service for very low-end use. It's part of a set of free online applications that the company has just introduced in beta, collectively called Acrobat.com.


Getting Started

Using the application starts by signing up at the sipgate Web site with your email address, password and name. Next comes downloading and installing the handset software, which works only with "jailbroken" iPhones — handsets that have been unlocked in violation of Apple Inc.'s rules so that they can run third-party software. Getting started requires launching the client software and clicking the "configure account" button. After entering your sipgate username and password, you're ready to go. The service provider gives you 111 free minutes of calls to start.
How the Service Works

The application routes calls exclusively through wifi links, not over cellular voice or data networks. It thus uses a method Apple will permit once it officially allows the iPhone to run third-party applications. Currently, though, you can't buy any more minutes from sipgate because the application is not a commercial service itself. Rather, it's meant to provide an introduction to the VoIP offering sipgate will soon roll out in the U.S., according to CEO Thilo Salmon.

If you want more calling time, you'll have to get it through another SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based VoIP service, such as Gizmo5 or Free World Dialup, Salmon said. That will require entering enter a username, password, SIP server and SIP realm for the service you want to use.
Plans for the US Market

Salmon won't discuss sipgate's plans for the U.S., except to say that the company is currently setting up the infrastructure to offer a VoIP service targeting SMBs (small- to medium-sized businesses). It could be in operation within months.

By then, of course, Apple will be well into its plan to not only allow but actually distribute third-party iPhone apps, including VoIP ones. That plan is part of its high-profile campaign to make the iPhone a business as well as a consumer device. As a result, sipgate's iPhone application could prove a good way to bring its new VoIP service to the attention of U.S. businesses at just the right time.