Already more than 25 million Apple iPads have been sold worldwide but no iPads are voice telephony enabled when they come out of the box. This represents a huge new market segment for Coms, as its services can be provided over the iPad’s inbuilt WiFi or GSM modem.

iPad subscribers can choose a new Coms telephone number from more than 250 area codes in the UK, including principle telephone suffixes such as London or Birmingham. The service includes free advanced telephone features such as voicemail, call forwarding, voice to email and calling line identifier display, as well as low cost call plans to all international locations.

The service will be marketed to all iPad users, but will be particularly relevant to those who travel, as when they connect to a local WiFi network they will be able to receive inbound calls without any high roaming fees, and outgoing calls will be charged at their local call plan rates.

Richard Bennett, CEO, Coms plc commented: “This new service builds upon the iPhone applications that we launched earlier in the year facilitating the development of the cloud telephony market. It is my belief that fixed line telephony will steadily migrate to cloud based telephony services which offer individuals and businesses increased features and lower call costs.

“Users of this new service can save up to 90% against BT on international calls and up to 77% on UK calls. In addition they get a new landline for free which travels with them, saving £296 against BT.”

iPad users can voice enable their iPads by subscribing to the Coms telephony service from the Coms website. Subscribers will need a softphone app which is downloaded from the Apple store. Coms recommends the Bria app from Counterpath that has the Coms service settings embedded into it, making it simple for subscribers to start making and receiving calls.

Coms is working on additional features that will enable customers to transfer their existing BT numbers to the Coms service, as well as making the service compatible with all leading operating systems including Android, OS and Symbian.