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Voifone Beta Released

Voifone Communicator Beta

Release Date June 15, 2018

Our long-awaited official release date has finally arrived!  Voifone has been a project which began originally in 2011.  We had several versions of it with varying degrees of success over those years, shut it down in January 2016 for a complete overhaul and rebuild and today, we are proud to announce it is ready for distribution as a Beta product.

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BETA ISSUES UNDER DEVELOPMENT

We call this our “Beta” release because, although the basic International calling feature is nearly flawless, SMS works very well, free calling works nicely and most other features are working just fine, our engineers continue to work on several known issues, which they anticipate will be completed within the next 30 days or less.  Following is a list of issues which are currently under development.  When development on the following items is complete, we will remove the “Beta” label and declare the application fully functional.  We will periodically announce upgrades which may be downloaded from Google Play and the App Store.  Here are the issues which remain under development and are the reason to label this release to be a “BETA” version:
  1. ACTIVATION EMAIL IMPROVEMENT:  Although the activation email works just fine, it doesn’t always get sent immediately upon tapping “Register” during the app installation process.  Often, users must tap “Resend Activation Email” before they see it in their email inbox.  Expect an improvement in the email layout and more immediate delivery.
  2. SMS ID FEATURE:  When SMS is sent, it is received with a random Sender ID.  It is also one-way SMS, meaning the recipient cannot reply to your message.  The one-way email delivery and random caller ID’s will remain the same, because this is how we can offer such incredibly LOW International SMS rates.  Random Sender ID’s pose a unique challenge.   It is imperative that you identify yourself at the beginning of your message.  We don’t want to rely on customers “remembering” to do this.  Therefore we must automatically insert your name into the message to ensure your recipients always know who sent the message.  A feature is being developed to add your name to the beginning of each message so every message will start with”From Firstname Lastname” in which Firstname and Lastname are replaced with your own first name and last name whenever you open the SMS app in Voifone.
  3.  ACCURATE SMS BALANCE UPDATE:  Whenever you send SMS, your balance is updated based on current rates. Rates are subject to change without notice and are posted on our Calling Plans page. There are some technical inaccuracies which are currently being updated.  Expect these rates to change from time to time.
  4. AUTO-ASSIGNMENT AND BILLING ACCURACY OF CALLING PLANS.  When you load less than $50 to your account, you are assigned to the Discount Calling Plan.  When you add $50 or more to your account, you are assigned to the lower-priced Wholesale Calling Plan.  As of the release date, the system recognizes the 2 different plans and assigns them internally, however both plans contain the Wholesale rates. This will be corrected.  Congratulations to all customers who benefit from the lower pricing without adding the required $50!
  5. NUMBER TRANSLATION:  As of the release date, to place a call you must enter a prefix of “00” before you enter country code, area code and phone number with prefix.  Internationally, the phone carriers in different countries and regions have different practices and rules regarding exactly how customers are required to enter a phone number to reach International and local destinations.  We are incorporating the most popular of these variable phone number entry rules to make it easier for customers to dial using the methods they are accustomed to.  For instance, some countries require a “+” before starting to dial.  Others require a “0” and others require a “00”.  Some allow the use of parentheses, periods (“.”) and dashes (“-“), others do not. We are updating our system to accept these most common methods to alleviate the learning curve for our customers when using Voifone Communicator.
  6. iPHONE CUTS OFF PART OF LAST RATE DIGIT:  The iPhone app improperly cuts off the last digit when displaying the rate.  This will be corrected.
  7. CUSTOMER LOGIN PORTAL COMODO LOGO:  We use Comodo for security on our server.  Their logo is displayed in the lower right hand corner of your screen after you log in. We are moving this to the lower left-hand corner because sometimes, it covers important commands.
  8. INBOUND USA PHONE NUMBER:  We offer inbound USA phone service.  However, the apps currently do not support inbound phone calls. This requires our customers to install a compatible app on their cell phone and connect it to their Voifone account.  We recommend Zoiper.  The USA phone service works great!  But our customers should have be required to install a different application to use it.  This issue is being addressed and the update will be announced when it is ready.
  9. CALLING CARD SERVICE:  Calling card service will be available during the summer of 2018.  We recognize that some of our customers need this service so we are in the final configuration process as of the release date.  We will announce the new service via email and a blog article when it becomes available.
In addition to the foregoing features which are under development and will be deployed soon.  There are many apps that provide a multitude of free communications services. We are adding the most popular of these services to Voifone Communicator.  Here are some of the most important new features you will see in a future release: FEATURES COMING IN THE NEXT MAJOR RELEASE: There are two primary features built into Voifone Communicator which our competitors do not offer, and in most cases cannot and never will consider offering to their customers:
  • Lowest-cost rates with 6-second rounding instead of 60-second rounding.
  • Profit sharing.  We register all Voifone users as Affiliates and pay up to 2/3 of our Gross Profit as Commissions and Bonuses on the downline Contact List genealogy of users each time a user adds funds to their account
These two distinctive features allow us to effectively compete against the juggernauts in the industry by out-competing them in the paid services which keep those companies in business.  In addition to that, we will release the following features in the not-too-distant future:
  1. FREE VIDEO CALLS:   Free Voifone-to-Voifone video calls will be added.
  2. FREE VIDEO CONFERENCE CALLS:  Users will be able to add multiple users to a video conference call.
  3. FREE FILE & PHOTO TRANSFER:  File and photo transfers between users is being added.
  4. FREE INSTANT MESSAGING:  Instant messaging between users is being added, with emoticons.
  5. DESKTOP APPLICATION:  A desktop version of Voifone Communicator is under development.  We will announce it on our website, via email, blog article, text messaging and various other methods when it is ready for use.
FEATURE REQUESTS We accept feature requests from our Voifone Members.  If you have an idea for a feature you would like to see incorporated into a future release of Voifone, please tell us!  To do so, complete the Contact Us Form with the subject line “FEATURE REQUEST” and we will include it.  Those suggestions which we like and which are popular based on our own research and polling with existing users may be included in future releases of Voifone Communicator. As always, we thank our loyal users and customers and are always interested in your comments and suggestions.  Please let us know what’s on your mind!

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Richard Gaustad

Richard Gaustad

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