Rostelecom launched an analogue of Skype - Messenger "Alla"

Rostelecom launched the Alla Available roaming application, designed to make voice and video calls, the Izvestia newspaper writes.

Currently, the application is available on Android and iOS platforms. When registering, the user is assigned a Russian phone number with a city code, which subscribers of any communication operators can call. In addition, the presence of a separate number allows you to make calls from abroad at the tariffs of Russian local fixed communication.

At the same time, users can communicate with each other and for free if the application is installed on devices of both interlocutors. It is expected that until the end of the first half of the year, the service will appear in the service interchange of text messages, which will turn Alla into a full messenger.

"Launching" Alla "is due to a high level of penetration of mobile devices and digitalization. The Rostelecom app, unlike similar services, is tied to a fixed telephony number. In fact, this is a" home phone 2.0 ", said Rostelecom, Valery Kostarev, official representative of Rostelecom.

According to him, so far the application gives users only the Voronezh phone number, but they promise to expand geography. So, in the 1st quarter of 2017, the service will become available in the 16 largest cities of the country, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Perm and others.

According to Sergei Kravtsov, the founder of the Russian Internet solution (creator of the QIP messenger), the messenger market is already divided and the novelty from Rostelecom will be able to occupy only a small niche. "They will not become a mass product. Perhaps" Alla "will be useful for business, but not for the final user," Kravtsov said.

Recall that the plans of Rostelecom to create its own analogue Skype became known in October 2014. The project cost was estimated at almost 73 million rubles, but the later announced competition for the development of the application was canceled, and in April 2015 the company reported that they changed their minds to create a product without partnership with specialized players.

However, in March last year, the company announced the development of design mock-ups of the future application. It was expected that the messenger would begin work in June.