Wengo
Genre | peer-to-peer internet telephony |
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Website | http://openwengo.org/ |
Wengo is a VoIP provider, subsidiary company of Neuf Cegetel. It supports the development of a free and open source (GPL) VoIP (and video conferencing[citation needed], SMS and chat) softphone through which it offers PC to PSTN phone calls. This software uses the free and open SIP protocol and is developed under the WengoPhone name by the OpenWengo project.
History
The company was officially created in September 2004 and launched its service at the beginning of 2005, based on what is now know as the "Wengophone, classic edition". In September 2005, Wengo opened its visiophony service at the same time as Skype on a cross platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X). In 2006, Wengo became able to integrate the Gaim project into its software, giving its users the opportunity to communicate via Instant Messaging with other users on the MSN, Yahoo, or Google Talk networks.
Wengo and Skype started offering free PSTN calls in 2006 which accelerated the commoditization of telephony calls. In June 2006, Wengo offered a two month unlimited calling plan to several destinations including Belgium, Guadeloupe, India, Martinique, Poland, Vietnam. The offer was posted on many websites including Fatwallet and attracted many new customers. Wengo later suspended many of these accounts in the company's interests after many people began abusing the unlimited calling system.
In June 2006, Wengo launched Wdeal, a social marketplace that gives its users the opportunity to create toll-free telephone number and paying services so that they can sell their expertise over the phone.
In December 2006, Wengo launched wengovisio: a Flash-driven VoIP client that enables website owners to be called by their readers directly on their website, without any software installation.