2006 in kent uk headquarters london uk area served australia germany hong kong poland spain the netherlands united kingdom united states products mobile telecommunications products and services mobile and desktop software subsidiaries truphone ltd in uk software cellular network ltd north america in usa startel communications co pty ltd in australia scn truphone s.l. in spain truphone hong kong limited in hong kong tru pte ltd in singapore truphone poland sp . z o.o. in poland website truphone.com truphone is a global mobile network that operates its service internationally . it has headquarters in london and offices in australia germany hong kong philippines poland spain the netherlands portugal and the united states . 1 truphone offers three main products truphone a sim based gsm mobile service that offers customers improved voice and data performance as well as local rates rather than roaming rates in 66 countries . in eight 8 of these countries an area the company calls the truphone zone users can purchase additional local mobile phone numbers so their contacts in these countries are able to reach them with a local call . truphone mobile recording which enables businesses to seamlessly record and securely store mobile communications . the truphone app which allows free voip capabilities in addition to other features for ios android and blackberry devices . contents 1 history 1.1 funding 1.2 timeline 2 products and services 2.1 truphone sim 2.1.1 geographical breakdown 2.2 truphone mobile recording 2.2.1 features 2.2.2 technology 2.2.3 partnerships and mvno agreements 2.2.4 global mobile network infrastructure 2.3 truphone app 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit truphone a trading name of truphone ltd formerly software cellular network ltd was founded in 2006 by james tagg alexander straub and alistair campbell . 2 the company s core business focus is truphone launched as truphone local anywhere in january 2010 3 . it is a gsm sim based mobile service that provides bundles of minutes text and data to business customers for use in an area of 66 countries . truphone calls this group of countries truphone world . within this area is a group of countries the company calls the truphone zone . here the company has mvno partnerships with local operators and offers customers additional local mobile phone numbers . this is so users contacts can always reach them with a local call at a local rate . truphone was originally formed to develop downloadable mobile voip applications for smartphones using the integrated wi fi connection on the device . 4 these offered the ability to make free or low cost calls on the mobile device in areas where there is weak or no gsm coverage and to send instant messages to other networks . the first truphone application released was for nokia devices . this was followed by applications for apple iphone 5 blackberry smartphones 6 apple ipod touch 7 android devices and a softphone application for desktop was launched in late 2010 . 8 truphone s sim based products are entirely separate from the apps . truphone does however intend to combine the sim and app accounts for customers in the future . 9 funding edit truphone s main funding comes from vollin holdings limited minden somercourt investments ltd wellington partners eden ventures burda capital independent news and media straub ventures and a number of high net worth individuals . 10 11 timeline edit 2006 october truphone launches first voip application in beta 12 2007 january raises 12.5 24.5 million in series a funding 13 march 100 europe award from red herring magazine 14 june releases new functionality allowing voip over 3g and sms over ip june t mobile blocked all calls to truphone numbers . july an injunction was issued by a uk court that forces t mobile to allow connection to truphones s mobile numbers 15 2008 april raised 16.5 m 32.7 m of series b venture capital funding ; 16 acquired sim4travel 17 may version 4.0 released incorporating truphone anywhere an automated call through and call back application 18 july first voip application to be available through itunes for the iphone october releases truphone anywhere application for blackberry handsets 19 december releases application for ipod touch allowing free ipod to ipod calling 20 april truphone acquired sim4travel a provider of travel sim cards for cash and shares 17 the first foray for truphone into the gsm industry . back end technology from sim4travel is now used in the truphone sim service . 2009 january releases application for android platform ; 21 releases instant messaging capabilities 22 2010 january truphone local anywhere now truphone sim launches ; 23 truphone and vodafone enter mvno partnership ; 24 truphone launched the first commercially available voip application for the android 25 april truphone launches on the ipad as the first voip application available 26 june truphone announces agreements with vodafone netherlands and orange in spain 27 december truphone expands its suite of applications to the desktop and laptop ; 8 truphone announces that local rates and numbers are now available in australia 28 2011 july truphone announces partnership with obsidian wireless 29 and demonstrates truphone mobile recording solution 30 august truphone appoints new ceo steve robertson formerly of bt openreach november truphone launches truphone mobile recording to help facilitate banks compliance with financial services authority now fca regulations on mobile call recording 2012 july truphone acquires its partner obsidian wireless august truphone opens us headquarters in research triangle park raleigh nc 2013 may announces technology partnership with caterham f1 team september truphone signs deal with bt global services for the telecoms giant to resell its truphone mobile recording product in the usa november truphone launches new operations in germany hong kong and poland is featured on cnbc october shortlisted for the best mvno at the what mobile awards and best business communications provider at the v3 awards . december truphone opens new offices in new york ny and houston tx 2014 january shortlisted for the gsma global mobile awards best enterprise mobile service and fstech awards 2014 online mobile provider of the year february won best mvno at the telecoms.com awards march shortlisted most innovative telecom project telecom asia awards 2014 may truphone world plan is launched an extension to the borderless communication zone to include 66 countries is featured in cnn cnbc and forbes magazine june won best customer service in asia pacific at the contact centre world awards . announces deal to be the official telecommunications supplier and sponsor of the volvo ocean race a round the world sailing event . announces three year shirt sponsorship deal with vitesse arnhem a football club from the netherlands eredivisie july won best customer service in europe middle east and africa at the contact centre world awards . won international customer service training programme of the year at the customer service training awards november won best contact centre award the contact centre world awards . 31 december truphone announced that it had undergone a review of the shape focus and performance of its business and that following this process its shareholders have committed a funding package of 51 million for 2015 . following this review truphone initiated a process to streamline and restructure the business to accelerate progress towards profitability . 32 products and services edit truphone sim edit the truphone sim is a standard gsm service with patented technology 33 that allows customers to have additional phone numbers for any or all of the countries where truphone has mvno partnerships with local operators . currently this includes australia germany hong kong poland spain the netherlands united kingdom and the united states . 34 the company has built a mobile network with core network technology distributed across four continents . truphone uses these local points of presence pops to reduce the distance that mobile traffic has to travel . this reduces latency improves data speeds and call quality . truphone offers local rates for calls texts and data through commercial arrangements with mobile network operators in 66 countries around the world . the company focuses mainly on the business marketplace and also has a pre pay sim that comes with 1 phone number additional numbers can be purchased for an extra monthly fee currently 8 month . business plans include 2 phone numbers as standard . 35 geographical breakdown edit truphone zone countries where truphone customers can purchase additional phone numbers includes the us uk australia hong kong netherlands germany poland and spain truphone world countries where business users bundles of minutes texts and data can be used includes albania andorra argentina austria belarus belgium bosnia & herzegovina bulgaria brazil canada china croatia cyprus czech republic denmark estonia faroe islands finland france french guiana gibraltar greece guadeloupe guernsey hungary iceland ireland isle of man israel italy japan jersey latvia liechtenstein lithuania luxembourg macedonia malta mexico martinique mayotte monaco montenegro new zealand norway portugal reunion island romania russia san marino serbia singapore slovakia slovenia sweden switzerland turkey ukraine and vatican city everywhere else truphone network provides service with higher quality performance in over 220 countries . 36 truphone mobile recording edit in addition to the roaming service truphone offers mobile call and sms recording service to financial institutions in the uk and usa to comply with the mobile recording legislation from the financial conduct authority and the dodd frank wall street reform act . 37 the truphone mobile recording service is delivered with its wholly owned subsidiary truobsidian an organisation created out of the acquisition of obsidian wireless by truphone in 2012 . features edit local rates in multiple countries bundles of voice minutes texts and data used across the 66 countries in truphone world multiple local numbers on one mobile sim for the eight truphone zone countries smart cli works in over 200 countries as per the gsma call and sms recording optional available for uk usa hong kong and australia subscribers only technology edit multi imsi the truphone sim allows more than one mobile subscriber identity imsi to be added onto the sim 38 so a user can have a number for every country truphone has an mvno partnership with . smart cli the smart caller line identification smart cli technology ensures that the most appropriate number is displayed on the phone of the person the truphone user is calling . 39 mobile recording truphone s voice and sms recording is integrated within the network infrastructure . 40 recorded conversations can be stored in the cloud or within the financial institution s existing recording infrastructure . in september 2013 truphone partnered with bt to market truphone mobile recording service to help firms meet new financial market regulations in the us . partnerships and mvno agreements edit truphone has mvno agreements with operators in australia germany hong kong poland spain the netherlands united kingdom and the united states . it has additional bi lateral roaming agreements in place with a wide range of operators around the world . global mobile network infrastructure edit truphone owns and manages its own core mobile technology . the core is connected to global distributed major points of presence using a dedicated high speed internet connection ip vpls . international mobile traffic is routed through the nearest point of presence this reduction in physical distance reduces call interference and latency and increases data throughput . truphone app edit truphone s voip application known as truphone app 41 a separate product to the tru sim allows users to make calls over the internet to landline and mobile phone contacts and free calls to other truphone app users . 42 customers are also able to instant message contacts on other networks such as skype or windows live 43 on selected devices . the application also has additional user experience enhancements including call cost indicator that advises the per minute cost before a call is placed signal strength checker photo led contacts book instant messaging the application is available as a free download and works on