Call us cheap: fring comes to Nokia 5800

Fring lets you make free or low-cost calls locally, nationally and internationally, while rolling all your IM clients and contacts into one list. It's now free for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Nate Lanxon

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Nate Lanxon

March 4, 2009 8:00 a.m. PT

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Nokia axed sales of its 5800 XpressMusic mobile in America just hours after it hit shelves last week, thanks to some production-line mishaps. For those of you who didn't buy a duff model, how would you like some free international calls?

fring is a VoIP and IM client that uses your phone's data connection to make calls. That means your network's stingy talk-time minutes remain untouched. Like Skype, you can make cheap calls to mobiles and landlines around the world, or free calls to other fring users.

It's also a multi-client IM service, rolling all your MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Skype, Google and Facebook contacts into one list, so you can see who is online at any given time, and cheaply (or freely) call them up or chat with them over IM, using your phone's data connection.

The download is free from fring.com now, but make sure you have a data plan on your handset or use a Wi-Fi connection -- data without a service plan can be more expensive than calls if you're using it heavily.

Check out some screenshots of the Nokia version of fring over the next few pages, and get a feel for the service before downloading.