Zer01 Announces Unlimited Voice and Data for $69.95 a Month

Zer01 Mobile, a new cell phone carrier, announced on Thursday that it planned to offer users unlimited voice and data on smartphones while charging only $69.95/month, yet without a contract, and that its network was as wide as the one owned by AT&T. Basically, the network is actually AT&T's, yet the company is using some sort of roaming agreement to tunnel from it into its own IP backbone.

Zer01 plans to make savings by eliminating traditional circuit-switched voice calling. Namely, all calls on the carrier would be made through a proprietary Voice-over-IP (VOIP) application, which can now be used with Windows Mobile 6 phones, but which, says Zer01 Chief Executive Ben Piilani, would soon also work with Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Java, as well as with jailbroken iPhones.

The company also announced that the $69.95/month plan included unlimited VOIP calling and data, and that there would be no contracts involved with users. At the same time, it also mentioned that it allowed for unlimited international calling to 40 countries with only another $10 a month.

The carrier's VOIP application includes some proprietary technologies, stated Piilani. It allows users to dial from the phone's keypad without the need for a separate voice-over-IP application to be launched. At the same time, it connects to the phone's dialer apps and uses the microphone and earpiece present on the phone. In addition, it can also be used with EDGE and GPRS networks.

“We've developed specific algorithms in our technology that address latency issues across the GSM networks,” Piilani said. Furthermore, the app is able to work even if the band used is a slow GPRS or EDGE.

The company is using interconnect (roaming) agreements, allowing for each handset to get its own IP address and open a VPN tunnel to the company's servers. “It's our own VPN, and we're actually providing the data the customer is using,” states Piilani. This way, Zer01 Mobile is able to offer unlimited data to users, and not be limited to the 5GB/month caps.

Another interesting thing to mention is that the carrier does not offer its own phones, but allows users to come with their own unlocked ones. Yet, Zer01 does plan to sell three handsets, TyTnII (aka Tilt), Touch Diamond and Touch 3G, all from HTC. While the software has to be improved for each mobile phone model, the list of supported devices is growing, says the company's chief executive.

“Right now the initial push will be Windows Mobile devices, but immediately after launch we're going to announce several other OSes and devices,” Piilani said. The carrier intends to launch a closed beta as soon as next month.