A new software start-up company is targeting road warriors and SOHO workers with a service that links portable voice over IP with cellphones and PCs to create a personal and portable VoIP service.

Retailing for $4.95 a month, the new offering from Teleo uses its peer-to-peer network and SIP-based call server to enable subscribers to get a VoIP number and then receive calls to that number on their PC, wherever it is linked to the Internet. Whenever the call cannot be completed to the PC, it is automatically forwarded to a cellphone.

"We are focused on mobile professionals," said Teleo President and CEO Petter Sisson, a 12-year veteran of Bell Labs who also had Internet start-up experience with Wineshopper.com. "This makes phone service more like e-mail--it's not associated with a specific device, like a phone. Wherever you attach your PC ? it finds you."

The "secret sauce" that is Teleo's patent-pending intellectual property is the ability to use SIP-based standardized calling and also traverse firewalls and Network Address Translation devices. "Making the service portable is not as easy as it sounds because of firewalls and NATs," said Sisson. "You can use SIP, in which case you are standards-compliant and can communicate with the enterprise world SIP-compliant services such as Vonage, but you have firewall issues. Or you can use non-standard approaches and get around the firewall issues. We do both."

In addition, Teleo integrates with existing software to convert phone numbers in an Outlook contact list or on a Web site "click to call" automatically.

The company is in discussions with potential partners to private label its offering and is targeting software companies, major Web brands and MVNOs.

"We will provide the billing and customer care and handle all calls," said Sisson. Teleo is not adverse to working with telcos or other service providers but is looking for recurring revenue from calls generated.

Teleo also offers a free 30-day trial to its $4.95 a month retail service at www.teleo.com.

"We will partner on a revenue-sharing basis," Sisson said. "It's a great source of new revenue for companies who aren't offering voice services yet."