Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (
More info?)
"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in message
news:5j36k0t90dfm4sfi8qfs7snu73c1dsisu9@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 11:29:24 +0100, "John Beeston"
> <john.Beeston@talk21.com> wrote:
>
> >Does anyone have any experience of using vphones ... are these practical
> >yet.
>
> If you mean practical for use as your main telephone, methinks the
> price of 802.11 phones needs to drop a bit and 802.11 hot spots need
> to become more dense. The price is also a bit high at $200/ea.
>
http://www.zyxel.com/product/P2000W.html
> As always, you need to disclose how you plan to use an 802.11 phone
> before any determination of "practical" can be made.
>
> >I have heard calls being made from PDAs running SKYPE
> >http://www.skype.com/
>
> I'm on Skype and was one of the early users. Works well with DSL from
> a decent PC. Suffers from outgoing audio problems when my DSL
> upstream path gets constipated with traffic and the latency increases.
> Absolutely zero diagnostics so you can't really tell what's broken or
> even who's to blame.
>
> >and these seem to indicate that this is a real goer .... even if the PDA
is
> >rather bulky compared to modern GSM phones
>
> I use a combination PDA and cell phone. It may be bulky, but I only
> have to carry and replicate one device instead of two.
>
> Well, Skype does work on a Pocket PC 2003 based PDA. One of my
> friends has it on his Dell Axim X30. Lots of problems. He has the
> slower 312MHz version, while Skype recommends 400Mhz and above. At
> 312MHz, the audio in both directions is tolerable, but not great.
> There's an external earphone connector, but no microphone connector,
> therefore no headset. When used at the local coffee shop,
> interference from other 802.11 devices causes rather choppy and
> erratic performance. This is a good start but obviously not ready for
> prime time.
>
> The major application of an 802.11 VoIP phone seems to be makeing free
> phone calls at coffee shops and hot spots. Assuming you literally
> camp out at one of these, such a phone might be practical. Get a
> subscription to Vonage, Fonality, or other service and you're on.
> I'm sure the local coffee shop will be thrilled to have you turn their
> shop into your private phone booth.
>
> >I have seen a vphone (made by Viper?) which looks neater... but obviously
> >does not have the flexibility of the PDA solution.
>
> Again, this depends upon what you wanna do. For example, if you just
> want a VoIP phone at home, but like the idea of cordless, you might
> look into one of the VoIP converters that interface to an ordinary
> RJ11 jack.
>
http://www.grandstream.com/y-ht486.htm
> and just use an ordinary cordless phone.
>
> Another application I'm using is the neighborhood phone system. We
> have a shared Wi-Fi system around the neighborhood. I've installed a
> few VoIP SIP phones on the LAN at 3 houses. It's suppose to be for
> emergencies and experimentation, but has be monopolized by the kids
> yacking with each other all night. The parents love it because it
> doesn't tie up the POTS phone and because it's free.
>
> >Either way, it would appear that phone charges ... landline or mobile
should
> >be coming in for a battering.
>
> Time for a rant. The FCC is currently researching how to "regulate"
> VoIP. Never mind the minor detail that all of the reasons that wire
> line utilities required regulation do not apply to VoIP. I'll bet
> that the inevitable regulation turns into protection for existing
> land-line and cellular interests.
> http://www.fcc.gov/voip/
> Needless to say, the CLEC's formed from the Teleconfusion Act of 1996
> have not done well in the market or by the FCC. This should give you
> a clue what they're thinking:
>
http://sipthat.com/archives/000041.html
> It's also kinda obvious that the most successful technologies are the
> ones with the absolute minimum of FCC regulation, licensing, fees, and
> technical ossification (WiFi, FRS, GMRS, unregulated VoIP).
>
>
> --
Jeff,
Many thanks for this copious and informed response ...
Certainly tests across the globe from PC to PC using SKYPE were very
impressive, and even PC to standard phone ...
Here in the UK it is the cost of mobile calls which is the real target ...
most small businesses could really benefit from a quantum drop in call
charges ... yet all that seems to be happening is "repackaging of costs" to
confuse the consumer into thinking it is getting cheaper.
And quite what GPRS offers is beyond me ....
Initial tests with a PDA and SKYPE over WiFi are very encouraging, although
I take the point about the coffee shop .. It's bad enough in the pub with
all these mobile phones ... perhaps dedicated hotspot micro-offices ... or
internet cafes ... the why not use standard PC? Or perhaps little booths
.... rather like the old phone booths ... but you have to provide your own
kit to connect to the hot spot....
Odd that we strive so hard to produce new devices designed to reduce costs,
and end up, through regulation, with compromises which are no better
functionally that we had before, and the costs seem to have miraculously
increased ...
Regards
John
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