Sep 14, 2009 – Vopium today announced that it has joined the Symbian Foundation, which, together with its ecosystem, is creating the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform. The platform is based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson, including the S60 and MOAP(S) user interfaces.

“The Symbian Foundation welcomes Vopium into the community,” said David Wood, catalyst and futurist for Symbian. “Applications developers are crucial to creating the richest possible user experiences. We are eager to see the innovations that Vopium will bring to Symbian consumers.”

As a member of the Symbian Foundation, Vopium gains the immediate right to license the Symbian Foundation platform, royalty free and without source code fees; participate in the governance of the foundation; and take part in joint marketing and branding campaigns.  

“Having been member of SPN (Symbian Partner Network) since the very early days of Vopium, I am very pleased now that we have been approved as member of the Symbian Foundation” said Tanveer Sharif, Vopium’s CEO. “We will now be able to tap right into the Symbian Foundation platform and not least be on the forefront of new OS releases and updates”  

How Vopium works:
Vopium is a free mobile software application that leverages mobile VoIP and Wi-Fi technology to greatly reduce the cost of international phone calls made from mobile phones while also maintaining excellent call quality. Free and easy to download, Vopium integrates directly with the user’s mobile address book, and automatically re-routing all international calls via the least expensive method available. In addition to heavily discounted international calls, Vopium users can also slash the costs of sending text messages (SMS) abroad.


About Symbian:
The Symbian Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enable an open ecosystem that collaborates to create the most complete and richest user experiences for mobile devices. Symbian maintains the code for an open source software platform based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson, including the S60 and MOAP(S) user interfaces.

The foundation software licensing model and governance structure has been designed to secure transparency, encourage contribution and maintain platform consistency. The foundation promotes collaboration, contributions and active participation and operates as a meritocracy. Portions of the platform's source code have already been moved to open source, under the Eclipse Public License. By mid-2010 this process will be complete, making the platform code available to all for free.

The Symbian Foundation now occupies offices in the UK (London), US (Foster City), Japan (Tokyo), and Finland (Helsinki) and will soon have regional operations in China (Beijing). For more information please visit www.symbian.org or blog.symbian.org.

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About Vopium:
Vopium is a carrier-grade mobile telephony service designed to offer affordable and reliable international calls from any mobile handset. By using the Vopium application on their mobile phones to make calls from their home country, consumers and businesses alike can save up to 90% on international mobile and landline calls. Unlike more restrictive mobile VoIP solutions, Vopium supports hundreds of handsets across Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Java, Blackberry Rim and Android. Vopium uses intelligent routing and connection technology which automatically and seamlessly delivers the lowest cost connection for any international call. Vopium has offices in London, Copenhagen, Luxembourg and Pakistan. Vopium was recently awarded the Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Award and is listed on NYSE Euronext (MLVOP). To learn more, please visit www.vopium.com