Lypp – a new service that uses instant messaging to help you save on long-distance phone calls

We all know about the major shift that is taking place. I’m talking about the carriers becoming dumb pipes. Still, they are the one doing all the subsidizing, hence if you want a high-end phone it’s much more convenient to buy it from a carrier than to pay a premium for the unlocked device.

One service we’ve spotted recently that goes in that direction (making the carriers nothing more than dumb pipes) is Lypp. It’s service that uses new trick for the old problem — high calling costs. Basically, Lypp works on any phone or a desktop computer that can do instant messaging. Meaning every BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), Windows Mobile, Symbian OS based or even Java-enabled device will work.

The service may seem strange on the first sight, but it’s actually very simple to use. All you have to do is add the “Lypp buddy” (that’s actually Lypp’s bot) to your instant messenger (AIM, GTalk, Jabber, iChat, MSN or Yahoo!), tell “Lypp buddy” who you want to call (numbers or names from your phonebook) and voila… you’re ready to go. What happens next is that Lypp connects you with the person(s) you wanted to call. Yeah, it’s a callback-like service, hence I’m calling it a “callback service mashup” that is particularly useful for those not on unlimited data plan, or when you’re out of WiFi hotspot zone…

At the moment Lypp works only in U.S. and Canada, but I guess we could expect them to go global as soon as they gain some traction.