Announcements

Announcements — No Comments
11
Feb 12

Spokn blocked in UAE – resolved

This week, the Spokn website was blocked in UAE as soon as we got featured on a few popular blogs. Our Windows Desktop and Android dialers were unable to login.

Thankfully, we were able to spot the issue quickly and roll out new versions with fixes for the same.

The Windows dialer now allows you to access the Spokn website directly by clicking a link in the dialer. This opens a local window with the Spokn website over a secure connection – you can effectively use the entire Spokn website and this has been tested working in the UAE. So now even if you cannot access the website from your web browser, you can always do so using the Spokn dialer.

You can directly download the latest version of the Windows dialer by clicking this link.

The new version of the Android dialer is available in the Android App Market.

Remember, the Spokn website is reachable from the UAE and other Middle-East countries at https://www.spokn.com. Note the https in the URL instead of http.

The website can also be reached on http://www.spokn.org and http://www.spokn.im.

Sorry for the trouble you’ve had with this blockage. We’ve tweaked our dialers to be able to circumvent such blocks easily from now on.

Announcements / Product Updates / Updates — 4 Comments
30
Dec 11

Announcing Spokn 3.0.0

The last few months have been an eye-opening experience for us as far as VoIP in the Middle East is concerned. Customers in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait etc have been facing connectivity issues and have generally had a hard time making calls over VoIP. We thought a VPN-integrated Spokn dialer would work well, but with help from helpful customers like you, we found that VPN connections too were getting blocked by ISPs.

We’ve quickly engineered a solution that relies on obfuscation of the VoIP stream and we’re thrilled to release it today. As an added bonus, we’ve tweaked the codec for improved voice quality. We’ve beta tested this with customers from different countries in the Middle East and all of them had very good things to say about it. So here it is – Spokn for Windows v3.0.0.

As always, do let us know your feedback and suggestions – it helps us make Spokn better for you.

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful new year! We have something exciting coming up for our Resellers and Android users, so stay tuned…

Update: Some users may experience voice distortion during calls. This is due to HIGH microphone volume. Please reduce the volume manually for now. We are working on an automatic mechanism for our next release.

Announcements / Product Updates — 7 Comments
23
Aug 11

In India? Send an SMS to make a Spokn call

You’re in luck if you have an Indian mobile number. Now you can just send an SMS with the text “CALL<space><destination number with country code>” to +919212401234 and Spokn will set up a call for you. Even if you don’t have an internet connection, you can make an international call at Spokn’s low rates.

To be able to use this service, you just need to register your mobile number in the Spokn settings page and have some Spokn credits in your account. This service uses the Click-to-call API to set up a phone-to-phone call for you, so you are billed for two Spokn calls when you make a call using this service.

We’re working on making this available in other countries as well. If you’re not in India and want to use this service, let us know where you’re located and we’ll see what we can do. Read more about this service on the SMS Callback page.

Announcements / Product Updates — 1 Comment
23
Aug 11

Earn money by reselling Spokn credits

Quite a few of you have been asking for this and we’re glad to be able to finally announce that we’re now accepting Reseller applications.

Resellers are able to transfer credits to other Spokn accounts and are also entitled to a 5% commission on recharges of USD 100. Resellers are also able to generate Prepaid Recharge Codes that can be redeemed by Spokn subscribers for Spokn credits. Resellers typically transfer Spokn credits to a Spokn subscriber’s account in exchange for cash. Of course, they are able to sell Spokn credits in their local currency at a premium of their choice.

If you have friends or associates who don’t own credit cards and need to make international calls, you should consider becoming a Spokn reseller – it can provide you a good alternate source of income while you help them. All you need to do is fill up a small form and recharge your account with USD 100. When you receive our confirmation, your account will be upgraded to Reseller status and you will be able to transfer credits and generate recharge codes. Read more about this on the Reseller page.

Announcements / Product Updates — 7 Comments
29
Jul 11

Click to call from your mobile phone

We’re happy to announce the new m.spokn.com that now lets you make a Spokn call using your mobile phone. Just head on to the website from the web browser in your mobile phone, put in your number and the destination number and hit the Call button. Spokn will call you on your number and then connect you to the destination number.

Great quality calls on the go! Do remember that you’re charged for two Spokn calls since Spokn is calling your number as well as the destination number. Remember to bookmark m.spokn.com on your mobile phone for easy access! Read more on the original Click to call blog post and on our website.

Announcements — 13 Comments
24
Jun 11

Downtime for maintenance

We’ve scheduled some important maintenance activities on the core network so Spokn can work even better for you. Please make a note of the time and plan your calls accordingly.

Downtime window - 20:00 GMT to 22:00 GMT on Tuesday, 28 June 2011. See this in your local time.

This will affect all the Spokn services. This post will be updated as soon as the network is back up and running. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Update: Maintenance carried out successfully. All services back online.