The global telephony market is slowly transitioning away from fixed land lines to mobile networks. Using this to its advantage, SmartRoam, a telecommunications company, has devised new ways for iPhone (News - Alert) users to make international calls from their mobile phones with its new app ChatTime.

ChatTime, SmartRoam's flagship product, claims to be an industry first Mobile App that doesn't require Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity. It offers free international calls between its customers and uses the mobile voice network for voice connections. This service with patent pending technology is available to 1.7 billion people in 53 countries.

Dan Currie, CEO of SmartRoam emphasizing how different this mobile app was, said in a press release, "ChatTime is offering its customers free calls when they connect with another ChatTime customer, without restricting where calls are made or answered. Our customers are the only ones who can make free mobile international calls without Wi-Fi or 3G on either end of the call.”

Although VoIP has taken giant strides in the communications landscape, mobile VoIP calling is yet to take off in a big way. In fact, a Gartner (News - Alert) research stated that mobile VoIP calling will scale for mass adoption only on implementation of 4G networks. This may not happen until 2017.

According to Juniper Research (News - Alert), Mobile VoIP connected only 2.9 percent of the total international call traffic in 2010 and SmartRoam stated that ChatTime with its ability to transmit voice over cellular networks has become a popular alternative.

Apart from its free calls, ChatTime continues to provide low-cost international calls over cellular networks without the need for Wi-Fi or 3G. Many customers appreciated the crystal clear quality of the calls and the low international rates.

The app, which is available for download in the iPhone App store, appears to have consistently figured in the “Top 10 Apps for the Productivity Grossing category in the US App Store.” The ChatTime facility is available on the social media networks.

In other news, SmartRoam has been selected as a Finalist for Red Herring's (News - Alert) Top 100 Asia award. The Red Herring Top 100 Asia award is a prestigious list honoring the year's most promising private technology ventures from the Asian business region. The Red Herring editorial team selected the most innovative companies out of a pool of hundreds from across Asia for this list.