• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Network Free: Mobile Phone Uses VOIP

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

Sep. 10--Imagine having a cordless phone that can make calls anywhere you can find a wireless network.

That's what the upcoming UTStarcom F1000 phone promises -- a Wi-Fi phone connection you can take with you.

Of course, many consumers may say they already have such a phone: They call it a "cellphone," and it can make calls just about anywhere, with no need to be near a Wi-Fi hotspot like the UTStarcom.

But the advantage to the UTStarcom and other Wi-Fi phones is that they use voice over Internet protocol technology. VoIP service usually costs a lot less per month than cellular or traditional phone service.

For example, Vonage, which plans to sell the UTStarcom beginning in October, offers unlimited local and long-distance calls to the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico for $24.99 a month. The phone will sell for $100, with in-store $50 rebates at major electronics stores.

With a Wi-Fi phone and VoIP service, you can go anywhere you can find a Wi-Fi connection and make calls at no extra cost, assuming the Wi-Fi hotspot doesn't charge. You can go to New York or Seattle and still make calls over the Internet with your home number.

A cellphone can do that, but a user is usually burning minutes for a call. A traditional line at home may give you unlimited local or long-distance calls, but you can't take it with you.

This all assumes that a Wi-Fi phone works. Happily, the UTStarcom does, seamlessly.

I set aside about three hours one afternoon to program the Wi-Fi phone to get onto the Internet. But the extent of my work was this: I turned it on.

The device began searching for a wireless Internet connection, found mine (which, I blush to admit, was unsecured) and had me up and running within two minutes, complete with the 310 area code that Vonage had programmed into the handset. No software for my computer, no settings to be entered in the phone, no hassle.

If you're wise, you have your Wi-Fi setup better protected than I did. If you've got a firewall, you'll have to go into the software on the phone and enter settings that will let you onto your hotspot.

During a test two weeks ago of RedMoon Broadband Inc.'s Wi-Fi network in Addison, I brought along my UTStarcom to see how it worked in the real world. A number of times, it found unprotected Wi-Fi networks, and suddenly I could make calls (not that I advocate trespassing on other people's networks).

The quality of calls was not bad, although not as clear as on a hard-wired land line. The recipients of my call described the sound as comparable to the average cellular call.

PROS: It offers the advantages of telephone service over the Internet, plus mobility.

CONS: The phone's design looks dated; the voice quality resembles that of cellphones. But unlike a cellphone, it needs a Wi-Fi network to work.

BOTTOM LINE: An on-the-go option for people who use the Internet for their voice calls.

E-mail: tmaxon@dallasnews.com

-----

To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Dallas Morning News

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

UTSI,

Source: The Dallas Morning News

More News in this Category