Truphone to cut call costs from BlackBerry 10 devices

VoIP specialist Truphone is working on an app for the BlackBerry 10 platform that will allow users to make international phone calls and send text messages for only one-tenth of the normal cost by using a Wi-Fi or data connection.

The company confirmed it is in the process of developing an app for RIM's forthcoming OS on Tuesday.

"The new Truphone app will provide a superior user experience, including reliable, high-quality Wi-Fi and 4G/LTE calling and other over-the-top (OTT) services that take advantage of the BlackBerry 10 platform," Truphone said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company said the app would allow people to talk and text message for as much as 90-percent less than their standard operator rates. It also talked up the ease of developing apps for the BlackBerry 10 platform, allowing Truphone's app to be ready for launch when the first BlackBerry devices arrive running the operating system.

"RIM has got it right with the BlackBerry 10 platform. They have really streamlined the app-development process," Adam Linford, head of labs and mobile applications at Truphone, said in a statement.

"The platform's support for open-source components flattens the learning curve enabling us to build a new application quickly and cost-effectively and have it ready to go when the first BlackBerry 10 devices debut," he added.

RIM has not announced when the first device will launch running the new platform, saying only that it is scheduled to arrive in the second half of 2012.