VoIP at $15 a Pop

AndersBrownworth writes: "Creative has released what they are calling the VoIP Blaster, a $15 USB device (2 for $20) that lets you plug in a normal POTS type telephone and make Voice-over-IP calls to anyone on the Internet. Creative has some closed source software with it that they manage to sneak per call charges in with, but ignoring that one can install the open source fobbit software and do point-to-point unmetered VoIP calls to anyone else with a G.723.1 codec VoIP phone. I just got off a NC to CA call placed from behind a firewall and the quality rocked. It sounded far better than a cell phone. The Fobbit software is fairly solid on FreeBSD and Windows with a couple bugs in the Linux port." This device has been out for a while now, with mixed reviews, at least with the included software, but it's nice to see this effort to turn off the meter.

Comments

Re:Nice, but...

[Stalke]

True, but then it will be similar to a cellphone network. If you computer is down, then presumable the system would be able to leave a message at an answering service. If creative offered this with their subscription then it would be worth it. Otherwise your just paying to use your own bandwidth.

this part

[broller]

"that lets you plug in a normal POTS type telephone"

That's the big deal here. I wish I'd had one of these in college when I was making long distance phone calls to my girlfriend. We used IRC and other chat things sometimes, but the good old telephone was much prefered.

We would have saved almost $1k in those days.

Uh oh...

[krugdm]

So if I use fobbit to circumvent Creative's own software, is that like using bnetd to circumvent Battle.net?

Here come the lawsuits... :P

Re:Nice, but...

[Saint Aardvark]

The POTS is much more reliable now, I'll grant. But have you ever seen the prices on those ever-present phone cards sold in corner stores? Have a look some time. Most of the rates are pretty reasonable, leaving aside things like hidden and minimum charges. But, at least here in Canada, the calls to Vietname, Ethiopia, Korea and a few other places are a dollar a minute. And these are the cheep phone card rates.

Every internet cafe around where I live (downtown Vancouver) has lots and lots of Asian students playing games and chatting with friends back home over cam-n-chat websites. I can just imagine the amount of business they'll do if they advertise that you can call their special affiliate cafes in wherever for no more than the cost of your time in the cafe.

Alternatively, this could be a bit like the guy down the street with the ham radio: If he can get a connection to some guy in your home town, who can run out and grab your brother and let you guys talk for free or nearly, reliability will be, I think, very much the second of two concerns.

Why use USB ?

[Martin Spamer]

Why use USB?

When considering the rise of broadband technology and the convergent devices and the emergence of IP based DTV/VOD Systems the logical conclusion would be to use a network technology (i.e Ethernet) rather than USB. This offers the practical advantage of allowing the POTS phone(s) to be plugged directly into a broadband connection, without the requirement of a PC next to the phone.

Regarding call charges, these are probably break-out charges from the Internet into the Telephone network. A necessary service for this device to be used practically, i.e. calling an ordinary Phone.

Re:The problem with open source??

[Kemuri]

Sure, read commercial software licenses. It's
pretty much the same but in a more formal manner
expressed.

I agree that this paragraph is really
to flashy as an opening. It keeps people
back and should not be displayed that way :)

Nevertheless.. I'm considering buying some
VoIPs and use the risky soft. X Window System
comes also with the warning it can blow your
monitor..

Geert

Existing system works - why change?

[sphealey]

The existing voice telephone system works and works very well. There is absolutly no business justification for moving voice from a stable, reliable, cost-effective voice network to an unstable, unreliable, increasing-cost data network. None whatsoever, except to pump up the earnings of Cisco.

Who, come to think of it, is one of the biggest boosters of VoIP. Hmmm...

sPh

Re:Existing system works - why change?

[Steve Luzynski]

Actually the reason to make the change is buried in your response. :) Why maintain two networks? Why maintain that 'cost effective' voice T1 between two of your offices that averages less than 8 channels utilized when the data T1 running between the same two sites is pegged out 80% of the day?

VoIP solutions allow you to better manage your overall bandwidth costs. Mostly by allowing you to defer data network upgrades by using that dead space on your old voice network.

If your data network is unstable, unreliable, and increasing in cost, I have to wonder what in the heck you're doing with it.

Re:Existing system works - why change?

[sphealey]

The reason people are going to VOIP is that it costs less than circuit switched telephones.

The per-minute (variable) cost may be lower, but that is because the equipment costs are hidden in the capital budget and the support costs are hidden in "LAN/WAN Support".

Even for a good-sized office (say 250 people), the phone/PBX guy is usually on-site 1 or 2 days a month. Can you say the same for your "network support group"?

sPh

Why use USB?

[randomErr]

About a week ago someone told us about this device that Vonage is putting out for $20/month.

You don't have to have any special software, just a high-speed connection. Just plug in the Cisco voice router and go. Plus you get voice mail, call forwarding, online accounting, free long distance, and a real phone #. I've gotten mine and I've only lost a call once. That call was to a person in the boonies who was using a bad cell phone. 'Nuff said.

The sound quality is about 95% of a regular phone line. My only compliant about the system is that there's just under a quarter second lag between what someone says and what you hear, but that could because of my ISP.

Plus if I'm going out of town I just find a hotel with high speed Internet and plug my device in. Bomb I have an instant direct line back to the office or wife and kids(if I had a wife and kids, which I don't but that a different story). And no annoying hotel phone bills.

Web appliances are the way to go! Now if we could just get IPv6 in use and get rid of NAT we could get rid of telephones numbers. We could have IP # or domain names instead.

fone://commandertaco.slashdot.org could be the future.

[VoIP/Web Appliance evangelical rant complete, have a nice day]

Re:Security issues

[tincho_uy]

RAT (Robust Audio Tool - www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/software/rat/) allows you to use encryption (DES) and HMACs for the RTP packets, so you shouldn't need to worry about anyone listening to or garbling your conversation...