Will Vopium (A Pakistani Mobile App) Overshadow Skype?

“The underdog Danish voice over IP (VoIP) company, Vopium, has received a large cash injection from a prominent Indian telecommunications investor and has declared it is gunning for Skype in a bid to compete with the frontrunning VoIP provider. (Guardian)”

While reading the news on guardian, one is left with awe and wonder on the advancement that is taking all around. But as one continues reading the news piece, the very last paragraph informs that the Danish company actually belongs to a Pakistani named Tanveer Sharif. Who like many others, has had an incredible contribution towards generating employment and innovation in his homeland.

“King of VoIP world” (Skype) is now in competition with Vopium (a Pakistani company ready to take its share of worldwide VoIP market). Allowing its users to make cheap and affordable international calls, Vopium is determined to win its place in the market. The company is here to stay.

Vopium was founded in 2006 by Pakistani entrepreneur Tanveer Sharif. Next week, we will bring to you an exclusive interview with him, where he will tell the readers how Vopium came into being. In the interview he will also highlight how the company is allowing its employees to gain exposure by permitting them to work in the international market.

Its co-founders include Imran Sadiq and Brian Sussemiehl who had previous experience with development of mobile applications. While living in DenmarkIt was initially founded to allow cheap calling rates to Pakistan, India and Bangladesh but launched throughout the world last year. But at reported growth of 30% every month, this Pakistani could well be on track to become a real challenge to Skype’s hegemony.

Advancing rapidly, Vopium recently received a large sum of investment from telecom investor Raghuvinder Kataria, one of the early backers of what is now Bharti Airtel (one of the world’s largest telecommunication service providers).

“We believe that the market demands an alternative mobile solution to Skype and the fast market penetration of smartphones opens up new and more intelligent ways of communication.”

“Vopium has developed its own new market. The ground-breaking technology will reach millions of users all over the world in the next few years. Our expectations are reflected by the significant amount of money that we have invested in the company and we expect 10 million Vopium users in a few years.” Quotes Raghuvinder Kataria

Being a transparent application, it allows its users to make choices between whether they want to use it while dialing an international numbers or not. Once the application is downloaded on a mobile, it allows free communication via VoIP and Wi-Fi. The application also offers IM support for Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Apple devices, including the iPhone and iPod touch. This free to download  application allows its users to make cheap international calls, SMS, Wi-Fi calls over 900 handsets including the Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms.

VoIP is currently a dire need of the IT/ICT Industry of Pakistan. VoIP deregulation is currently one of the most important issues at hand. The internet provides free calls, but this is only free if you are using Skype and calling from one computer to another. And above all there are other VoIP systems also available but even these do not allow phone calls to be made on other VoIP services. They require Wi-Fi connections, from which once you wonder away, you just wonder far away.