Bobsled app lets T-Mobile cozy up to iPhone, iPad users

T-Mobile hasn't managed to secure an Apple iPhone, but with its Vivox-enabled Bobsled app it's found a way to strike up a relationship with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users.

The voice-over-IP (VoIP) based Bobsled by T-Mobile service lets users place free calls to Facebook friends over desktop browsers or iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. From a Mac or PC, Bobsled users can also place free calls to mobile or landline numbers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, even when outside the United States.

With the app, T-Mobile will not only be slipping in between AT&T and a good number of its subscribers, but potentially diverting the kind of traffic that helps AT&T keep the lights on.

"Vivox's partnership with T-Mobile and the Bobsled product is a stellar example of evolving the way we communicate," Vivox CEO Rob Seaver said in a statement. Or, really, understatement.

Gartner analyst Phillip Redman told Connected Planet that the Bobsled offer reflects the new reality of IP telephony and multimodal systems.

"Users want to be connected and will use a variety of services — wireless, wireline, traditional voice, social networking — to accomplish this," he said.

Regarding new services, pricing and delivery, he added, carriers need to start thinking outside the box. Which is what T-Mobile has figured out.

"T-Mobile, by offering this, is starting down this path," said Redman. "Of course, it has nothing to lose being the smallest of the tier 1 U.S. providers, so I think its competitors with larger market share will be slower to adopt new models."

AT&T wouldn't comment on the app. But if the larger carrier is allowed to proceed with its hoped-for purchase of T-Mobile, it's unclear whether Bobsled will survive.