Line Corporation, developer and operator of the LINE app for smartphones, has launched “Line Call,” a new calling service allowing people with LINE accounts to make high-quality voice calls direct to landlines and cellphones from the LINE app.

Line Call will initially be available in eight countries, including Japan, the U.S., Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Spain. Other countries will be added in the future.

The launch illustrates a couple of changes in the communications business rather nicely. Obviously, Line now is a substitute both for text messaging and voice, illustrating the fundamental delinking of “apps” and “access” that now is a foundational characteristic of communications, entertainment and end user app experiences.

Line Call also illustrates the way many competitors approach markets, namely starting at the low end and then gradually working “up the stack” in terms of value and head-to-head competition with market leaders.

Though Line users have been able to call each other, the latest feature makes Line a platform for calling anyone.

Line users have been able to make free calls to other Line users since October 2011. Free video calling was added in September 2013.

Line Call is pitched as an “alternative to traditional prepaid mobile services and disposable calling cards,” according to the company, allowing users to make affordable voice calls to people who do not use Line.

The loose coupling of apps and access also means access providers are going to have to rely on “access,” the unique role they play in the app ecosystem, for most of their revenue in the future. That means higher prices, as service providers lose former revenues.

Providers with lower operating or capital costs might be able to counter that trend. That might be especially true for access providers who provide a simple Internet access-only value proposition.

People with the latest version of the Line app installed on their Android (News - Alert) device (iOS support is coming) and have a registered phone number on their Line account can begin using LINE Call immediately, making low-cost domestic and international calls to landlines and mobile phones.

Customers can choose from two calling plans, either a monthly plan or a pay-as-you-go plan.

Tariffs are calculated depending on the country or region where the receiver's phone number is contracted, which means that the cost of calls to U.S. numbers are the same whether the call originates from inside or outside the country.

Line Call shows the cost-per-minute of the call, automatically displayed on the dialing screens so users knows exactly how much they are being charged for each call, and call credit can be purchased inside the LINE app. 


Edited by Rory J. Thompson