![\"Budline\"](\"http:\/\/www.worldline.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Budline.png\")
By Rose Simone, Record staff CAMBRIDGE – A Cambridge based independent telecommunications company, Fibernetics, has teamed up with the Budweiser beer brand to launch a smartphone application, the BudPhone, that allows people using the BlackBerry, iPhone or Android devices to make free long-distance calls within Canada.<\/p>\n
The smartphone application, which was developed over the course of two years by Fibernetics, uses the company\u2019s freephoneline.ca service, which is a voice-over-internet service.\u00a0 It routes calls so that they look like local calls and lets people avoid the long distance charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when you want to make a long distance call, you can just launch the application on your smartphone device, and you can either use your key pad or your contact list to call,\u201d said John Stix, the chief marketing officer for Fibernetics in Cambridge.\u00a0 \u201cYou can call within Canada completely free of charge and you can talk as often, for as long and as often as you want,\u201d he added.\u00a0 The service will work anywhere in the Fibernetics phone network – which covers all the major centres and about 85 per cent of Canada, Stix said. It doesn\u2019t require listening to any audio advertising and there is no interference with the phone call, he said.<\/p>\n
The reason it can be free is because voice-over-internet is actually very inexpensive to run, Stix said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadians pay the highest long distance rates in the world for cellphone calls. It is ridiculous for it to be as expensive as it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy having us simply reroute the call over our network, which is a voice-over-internet-protocol network, similar to Skype, we are able to channel that call at fractions of a penny per minute and it doesn\u2019t take much to cover the cost of providing the service.\u201d The local calling charges still apply and it won\u2019t change the terms of a regular cellphone contract, but the application is especially useful for people who travel or have children at university, he said.<\/p>\n
The partnership for the BudPhone application is beneficial for Labatt Breweries in marketing the Budweiser brand because \u201cone of our key demographics is that 19 to 24 year old drinker and those consumers are increasingly tech savvy,\u201d said Ben Seaton, marketing manager for Budweiser.<\/p>\n
It also provides those consumers with a technology that can help them to keep in touch with both their friends and family, he added.<\/p>\n
To get the application, people register on the website, www.budphone.ca, which then sends a link to the user. They can then register their phone number and get the link to the application for their particular device.<\/p>\n
There is also a version that can be downloaded onto regular computers that people can use to do voice-over-internet calling.\u00a0 Fibernetics employs about 160 people, including about 80 in Cambridge. The company also has a call centre in the Dominican Republic and a software division in Europe. It offers a range of. other services such as business phone and high speed internet services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope that by introducing ourselves to Canada en masse through this service people will look to us for other telecom services, but there is no obligation for that,\u201d Stix said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Rose Simone, Record staff CAMBRIDGE – A Cambridge based independent telecommunications company, Fibernetics, has teamed up with the Budweiser beer brand to launch a smartphone application, the BudPhone, that allows people using the BlackBerry, iPhone or Android devices to … Continue reading