Blabbelon has announced a new free, push-to-talk, private VoIP service that helps people gather and communicate through a Web browser.

The chat tool uses Skype’s (News - Alert) super wideband audio codec, and is said to be one of the first multi-user VoIP services that can handle thousands of simultaneous users at a fraction of the cost per user of other traditional services.

The service provides a platform for a wide variety of users such as gamers that compete in team-based quests or businesses running global conference calls and is ideal for a variety of consumer and business applications, such as e-commerce, online auctions and sales meetings/seminars.

Unlike other voice chat services that max out at 300 users, Blabbelon sessions can scale up to more than 7,000 simultaneous users according to officials with Blabbelon.

 

Dean Elwood, chief technology strategist at Blabbelon said the service is breaking from the trend of using VoIP as a way to simply provide ‘cheaper minutes.’

 

“We’ve created a value-added service that sets a precedent for VoIP to move into areas beyond pure telephony applications and have solved the problem of how to massively scale to include thousands of simultaneous users while still keeping a negligible cost per user,” Elwood said.

 

Users can also run Blabbelon in their Web browser while simultaneously running other applications. The chat service does not impact the overall network performance – thanks to Skype’s SILK codec which uses approximately 50 percent less network bandwidth than previously required while delivering improved richness in audio quality.
Initially, Blabbelon will focus on a core audience of the millions of online gamers and players of Massively Multiplayer Online or “MMO” games such as World of Warcraft.

Though many of the MMO games have a built-in VoIP system, few users rely on them because of their poor voice quality, said Ed Ikeguchi in an interview with TMC’s Tom Keating (News - Alert).

 

Blabbelon addresses this issue of gamers. Also, chat tools like Blabbelon let players continue the talking even after they break up from the gaming group, Ikeguchi told Keating.