illumy is undergoing a major platform upgrade to improve pretty much every aspect of our hyper-communications service. This includes improvements with speed, functionality, scalability, and UI — all of which we covered in a recent preview here.
But that’s not all: illumy’s VoIP (voice-over-internet-protocol) calling service will also see huge improvements with illumy platform 3.0.
As we promised in the platform preview, here’s a deeper dive into how illumy VoIP calling will be changing in the next couple months. We can’t wait for these changes to go live … but for now, this info should be a great teaser of what’s to come!
Full bidirectional calling for VoIP and phone calls.
Today, illumy is “bidirectional” (meaning you can both place and receive voice and video calls) for on-net calls only.
While you can call non-illumy numbers from your illumy account, you can be called only by other illumy users.
The on-net experience is staying the same — it will still be private, secure, and in true HD. What’s changing is that we’re enabling VoIP phone numbers through illumy for true bidirectional calling.
When bidirectional VoIP goes live, you’ll become reachable from ordinary (non-illumy and non-VoIP) phone numbers like your mobile or landline. Not only that, you’ll be able to create a new local phone number in many different countries. This will extend the amazing call quality and flexibility of illumy VoIP to anyone, anywhere who might want to reach you.
Bidirectional VoIP is a big enhancement to what some of our competitors offer. Skype, Viber, and Line are call-out applications only.
Improved performance and reliability.
This one is a heavy lift … because we’re taking a totally new approach to VoIP.
Typically, VoIP calls are routed almost entirely on the internet, then forwarded on to the regular phone network (a.k.a. the PSTN) after reaching the country you’re calling.
This approach works — most of the time. But it’s subject to packet loss, which results in big-time quality degradation.
The illumy approach is to route calls from our network to what’s known as a backbone carrier, which uses the PSTN to do long-haul call transport with quality. A different way of looking at it: We’ve optimized getting you from the “local streets” (the illumy network) to the “highway” (the backbone network that underpins even the biggest carriers).
The upshot is that you’ll see much higher quality VoIP calls that connect and disconnect much more quickly. It’s kind of a big deal.
Massive cost savings.
Because illumy VoIP uses the same pipelines as the gigantic telecom companies, does that mean you can expect to pay big-telecom prices?
The answer is no. We intend to provide the same or better VoIP service as the big carriers with 70%+ cost savings.
Yep, we’ve crunched the numbers, and no, that’s not a typo. Between illumy’s unlimited calling plans and our ultra-low per-minute rates, 70% is really what you’re going to save.
Right off the bat, the cheapest unlimited calling plan — the i2 — is getting a giant upgrade. Today, i2 gives you unlimited US and Canada calling only. Soon, it will come with 21 countries unlimited for the same incredible rate of $3 per month.
The $10-a-month i3 plan is also getting some love. It will soon offer unlimited calling to 56 countries, the most in the industry.
UI enhancements.
We talked about this in our platform 3.0 preview, but it’s worth mentioning again. The new-and-improved illumy will be better looking and more functional, on web, iOS, and Android.
When we say “more functional,” we mean 1) better organized 2) much faster and 3) more responsive. Plus, we’re greatly streamlining workflows for launching calls and creating or editing contacts.
We’re building illumy to be the true all-in-one hyper-communications tool, with all of your conversations threaded and searchable across email, chat, voice, and video. These UI improvements go a long way towards making that happen.
Excited? Yep, us too. Stay tuned for more previews, product walkthroughs, and how-tos as illumy 3.0 goes live.
Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash.
