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Fongo makes a very public bid for control of Wind Mobile
Canadian carrier Wind Mobile has faced no small amount of tumult in recent months, culminating in direct control by Orascom and talk of shopping the provider around to the highest bidder. We didn't entirely anticipate just who would take up the offer, however: Fongo, best known for its former Dell Voice initiative, has made an overt bid for Wind. The VoIP provider wants to extend Wind's network network across the country while moving subscribers over to Fongo within the space of a year, theoretically creating a perfect match between cheap cellular access and free internet calling. Before anyone pops champagne corks, we'd warn that there's heavy amounts of publicity and symbolism involved in the acquisition attempt. Fongo is offering $1 and a 49 percent stake in its own venture -- that draws attention to its service, but might not hold up in a fierce bidding war. There may be more involved, but we'll have to wait before we know just how serious the move could be. Wind's parent Globalive has declined comment, while Fongo tells us it's waiting on a formal response before putting more of its cards on the table.
Dell Voice offers VoIP, but only to Canadians
Dell's teamed up with Fongo to offer Dell Voice, a VoIP app that's available exclusively in Canada. It's currently available for Android, iOS and Windows (Desktop), enabling everyone to shoot the breeze about Dustin Penner without charges. You'll get a local phone number that'll let you call all the big cities (and most of the smaller ones), caller ID, voice-mail, 911 service and long-distance calling for no additional charge. Call credit costs 2c per minute, with each call averaging out to 1MB of data. Canadians clutching to their BlackBerries will be relieved to know that the app will roll out on RIM's handsets next month.[Thanks, Steven]
