Intex to offer smartphones with free calling app 'Nanu'

A Singapore-based mobile application company has entered into a partnership with Indian smartphone maker Intex Technologies to make a free calling app named ‘nanu’. Intex would be launching its two smartphone models, embedded with ‘nanu’ software in July.

The free-call nanu, which subsidises cost through targeted advertising on ring tones of dialers, is designed to operate in 2G areas, opening up to a market of millions of rural folks, said Martin Nygate, CEO of Gentay Communications, the parent company of ‘nanu’. He said nanu was already downloaded by 1.5 million subscribers in India out of the 2.2 million subscribers globally. “India is our biggest market and as such we have teamed up with Intex to launch it through two new smartphones which will be in the market in July,” Nygate said.

Unlike conventional voice calling apps, nanu provides its calls for free, including calls to non-nanu users on landlines and mobiles anywhere in the world. It can also be used on any network including 2G, allowing nanu to provide high quality calls from locations where other apps do not work, Nygate said.

“Having nanu embedded in smartphones means millions of people in rural and developing areas will now have access to free calls by just inserting SIM card in their newly purchased phones,” he said.