Say Goodbye to Cell Phone Long Distance Charges Forever

[FONGO_steve]

Our Gift to You this Holiday Season: Say Goodbye to Cell Phone Long Distance Charges Forever

Budweiser and freephoneline.ca from Fibernetics partner to help Canadians keep in touch – for free!

Cambridge, Ontario (December 15, 2010) – Just in time for the holiday season, freephoneline.ca and Budweiser have once again joined forces to launch a simple-to-use app for iPhone, Blackberry and Android Smartphones which promises to put an end to cell phone long distance charges in Canada – putting much-needed gift money back into the pockets of Canadians.

“Canadians today pay more for cell phone usage than anyone else in the world—up to 25 cents a minute for long distance calls–within our very own country. This is particularly hard to bear during the holidays, when people wanting to connect with friends and family across the country have to spend an arm and a leg on expensive long-distance calls. To put an end to this nonsense forever, we have once again partnered with Budweiser, the King of Beers to bring BudPhone to Canadian cell phone users,” says Fibernetics CMO John Stix. “Canadians are finally free to chat with friends and family in most cities across the country without having to worry about going broke.”

“This new app is perfect for Budweiser fans and for the brand,” said Ben Seaton, Marketing Manager, Budweiser. “The cutting edge technology is very relevant for young adults, allowing them to keep in touch on a limited budget, over the holiday season, while they are traveling the world or away at university.”

Industry analysts applaud the disruptive move by Fibernetics and Budweiser as solving a serious barrier to Smartphone adoption in Canada. “If there is one roadblock to telco competition and mobile adoption here in Canada – it has to be our costly rate plans,” says Jon Arnold, Principal with J. Arnold & Associates, an independent telecom consultancy focused on IP communications. “These plans are a barrier to mobile device adoption, and BudPhone takes us one step closer to having innovative alternatives to expensive cell phone plans and landline services.”

BudPhone, will be made available to Budweiser’s Canadian fans via Budweiser’s Facebook community http://www.facebook.com/budweisercanada. It is simple to obtain and simple to use. Users complete a quick registration, download the app to their phone, and begin making calls using their existing address book. “With BudPhone there is no need to dial 1 and no need to memorize an access number,” says Stix. “We do all the work for you.”

And, it gets better. Say you live in Toronto but you’re spending the holidays in Montreal. And from Montreal you want to call your mother in Vancouver. BudPhone will allow you to do this for free, Stix explains. Your phone’s GPS will recognize that you’ve left Toronto and offer you a drop-down menu with a list of other cities across Canada. Simply choose Montreal, and then dial. The software will dial the access number for you and your call will be connected for free.

“We’re here to make mobile long distance calling seamless and hassle free,” says Stix. “We live in a huge country and we realize that keeping in touch is very important to Canadians.”

Folks with friends and family abroad are covered too. “Users can purchase vouchers which allow them to call 50 different countries from 3 cents a minute; a huge savings compared to the dollar a minute many wireless carriers are charging today,” Stix says.

About Fibernetics
Fibernetics, headquartered in Cambridge, Ontario, is one of Canada’s fastest growing telecommunications companies. Founded by Jody Schnarr, John Stix and Mike Brown in 2003, the company is a determined market-disruptor in the Canadian telecommunications industry, dedicated to changing the way people communicate, by aggressively offering telco functionality and pricing that Canadians have never seen before. Fibernetics is a CRTC approved Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) with its own national infrastructure and delivers a full range of data and voice services for business. For more information about Fibernetics, visit our web site at http://www.fibernetics.ca

About Budweiser
Budweiser has been the King of Beers since 1876, and is brewed naturally using only the finest ingredients, without any artificial ingredients, additives or preservatives. Budweiser is distinguished by its clean, crisp, distinctive flavour, the result of a unique beechwood aging process. http://www.budweiser.ca or http://www.facebook.com/budweisercanada

[plankster]

Just wondering were and if available is the access number for the budphone to add to my cel phone Fav list .

. If you have a 'favorite' 5/10 plan with your cell carrier, adding our access number to that list will allow you to enjoy unlimited calling through the smartphone application from that location.

thanks

[HP88]

This is great news from FPL. Where could one find the local access number to put on the favourite list? Thanks

[FONGO_steve]

If you check the call history of your cell phone (not the Bud app), you'll usually see the access number in there. If not, I'll make sure we get the list published online ASAP!

[bfly]

Is this the smartphone app talked about in http://forum.freephoneline.ca/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1916

[FONGO_kris]

Indeed it is bfly, one and the same.

[Jake]

If you just have to dial an access number, wouldn't this mean that anyone can call these numbers and get free long distance? Even if they are not part of the FPL family.

[FONGO_kris]

Not at all Jake, however public these numbers may be, the user must be registered with the mobile app from budphone.ca or m.budphone.ca in order to be authorized to use the service.

[tigerking]

Not sure if here is a good place to ask for help regarding budphone registration on mobile web.

I followed the link m.budphone.ca to register an account

The registration process is a bit mess and easily to get trapped.

After asking my birthday and where I am calling from, it pointed me to punch down my cell phone number and e-mail address/password etc. It accepted my cell phone number and said it was registered. When I was trying to finish the step 3 to finish the registration, it said that my browser is not compatible with the budphone application registration and download and stop to continue the step 3. (It got my cell phone number registratered but not allowing me to finish the rest of the registration!! steal my number but don't let me in! it is a rob!).

I was using my default browser come with my Black Berry 8330 on Bell network.

I then use the PC to login budphone.ca and registered my e-mail and I think when I entered the contact number with my cell phone number, it will be registered automatically.

After receiving the activation e-mail and successfully activated my registration.

I then switch to my cell phone and use Opera Mini to access budphone.ca again. However, I still need to provide my cell phone number when I login and trying to download the mobile application from my BlackBerry.

At this time, after I provided my cellphone number (same as the one during my registration using my PC), it said that the number has been registered (actually stolen) and ask me to provide another cell phone number.

I believe, my cell phone number was engaged in the previous unsuccessful registration when I used my default Blackberry browser.

I believe the registration is with freephoneline and now I got stuck and not able to register my cellphone number and download the budphone applicaiton anymore on my cell phone.

Is there any way that I can release my cellphone number for another registration or there will be another place that I can download the budphone (for Blackberry smartphone 8330) without providing cellphone number like the softphone we can download from FPL?

[HP88]

I was successful to install the budphone app on the iphone, I am also able to make calls locally and within FPL network (without having to dial 1). The Budphone page indicated that one can use the app on smartphone to receive calls. How could one configure the budphone app to a FPL number? Please help if there is a solution.

I can use a SIP client on the iphone to call via WiFi or 3G network and it uses the voucher for all out of network calls and it can receive calls too (if it is running in the background). Using the budphone app will burn up local time minutes, unless you have Fav list option. Using the SIP client uses only little to nothing data to make calls.

Perhaps the next version of budphone app would be much improved. For now, the benefit of the budphone app is very limited; but is heading in the right direction. Looking forward to the additional features. Thanks FPL and Budweiser.

[bridonca]

My little sister is getting the newest ipod touch this Xmas. So I have 2 questions. Will the client work on the ipod touch, and also, is there a client that is available that is not beer related? I certainly have nothing against beer, but it might be an issue having such a brand on a 13 year old's ipod

[sukasem]

I haven't received SMS after I change my smartphone model but I did receive SMS the first one tho (I chose wrong model).
How to download the softphone on smartphone now?
Thanks,

[FONGO_steve]

I haven't received SMS after I change my smartphone model but I did receive SMS the first one tho (I chose wrong model).
How to download the softphone on smartphone now?
Thanks,

Can you please PM me your mobile number and email address of your account? I will look into this first thing in the morning when I'm at the office.

My little sister is getting the newest ipod touch this Xmas. So I have 2 questions. Will the client work on the ipod touch, and also, is there a client that is available that is not beer related? I certainly have nothing against beer, but it might be an issue having such a brand on a 13 year old's ipod

The application will not work on the iPod Touch as the iPod Touch is not capable of making mobile phone calls.

[cbeal]

How do I add the local access # to MY5? I tried adding the number for Ottawa 343-883-1398, but I receive a message saying it's not a valid Canadian phone #.

[FONGO_steve]

How do I add the local access # to MY5? I tried adding the number for Ottawa 343-883-1398, but I receive a message saying it's not a valid Canadian phone #.

I'd say check with your phone carrier - maybe their my-5 system doesn't think the newer 343 exchange is valid? I know there's only a few providers using that exchange in Ottawa right now - it might have been overlooked. Let us know how you make out with that.

[cbeal]

Speaking with them right - they think it's a US based number. Do you which providers are using this exchange in Ottawa?

[FONGO_kris]

I believe it is only TELUS and us, actually.

[cbeal]

They asked me the purpose - I told them it was a calling card access number which is not valid for MY5 policy. Perhaps I should have said it was a friend on the Telus network. I might try that later, but if there are any suggestions as to what to tell Rogers I would be interested in hearing them.

[tbrummell]

Just tell them to go to www.nanpa.com and look it up. Doesn't matter what it is used for, they need to have it added as a local Ottawa area code. Speaking of, I guess I need to log in to some pbx's and get that bad boy added as well! LoL

[tbrummell]

Just tell them to go to http://www.nanpa.com and look it up. Doesn't matter what it is used for, they need to have it added as a local Ottawa area code. Speaking of, I guess I need to log in to some pbx's and get that bad boy added as well! LoL

Whoops, my bad! They are routing as a local call, just not allowing you to add the number as a MY5. Whoa....good luck with that one...

[cbeal]

AFter speaking with customer care for 10 mins they opened a ticket to add that number. They confirmed that it was a valid area code. As compensation they gave me an extra 100 minutes for this month. Should be fixed in a couple of days.

[FONGO_steve]

AFter speaking with customer care for 10 mins they opened a ticket to add that number. They confirmed that it was a valid area code. As compensation they gave me an extra 100 minutes for this month. Should be fixed in a couple of days.

Sweet!

[MIKE70]

Any updates on getting the Budphone application working on a BlackBerry Torch 9800?

I've register for the app on the Budphone web page, didn't receive any SMS message or email to download the app from.
When logging back on the Budphone home page, clicked on the "Smartphone" button, all it says “Thanks for Registering”, nothing gets sent via SMS or email.

Thanks
Mike

[FONGO_steve]

Any updates on getting the Budphone application working on a BlackBerry Torch 9800?

I've register for the app on the Budphone web page, didn't receive any SMS message or email to download the app from.
When logging back on the Budphone home page, clicked on the "Smartphone" button, all it says “Thanks for Registering”, nothing gets sent via SMS or email.

Thanks
Mike

Can you PM me your smartphone number? That's a little weird that you never got the SMS after registering - I can check into that for you.

[Iron Wizard]

Where do you find the access number for your city?