Slashdot Mirror
New Phone Uses WLAN or Cel Networks
Reefa writes "Avaya, Motorola and Proxim this week are expected to announce a co-developed handset and enterprise network gear that let mobile phone users roam between cellular networks and wireless LANs to make/receive calls.
The phone uses SIP to make calls when on the WLAN network and switches to using cellular network when out of WLAN coverage and vice versa. The device also supports Push-To-Talk over SIP. BTW, the phone runs WinCE."
Maybe your minutes won't run out when you're on a WLAN network? That sure would be nice!
Win CE crashes more often than Win XP and that's too much!
Ah yes, my favorite OS name. Who else but M$ would come up with a name that spells wince. Was there ever a more appropriate name? Now they just need to come out with a cringe OS.
The one thing that gets me from the article (yes, I actually read it...go figure) is that you have to use Avaya access points. That right there could be the deal killer because there are already thousands of access points installed around the country. I don't see that many companies tearing apart their infrastructure simply for this functionality. Think of all the national rollout plans (McDonalds, Panera Breads, airports, Barnes & Noble, etc) that would have to redo everything. It would be like starting from scratch for them and for the WiFi companies that installed everything.
Yet, this is an interesting solution to those killer cell phone bills. We're experiencing that right now as we take a large volume of calls on our cell phones. If we were able to use "WiFi airtime" instead of "cell time" while in the office, that could save a company loads of money.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
I think with the recent release of more an more all in one Cell-Phones we are seeing the end of the convergence\divergence debate. It seems that everything all-in-one devices are picking up much more steem than intercommunication devices. This can be seen with the geek-watch reported yesterday, as well as the new ipod phones.
Why is it that QNX is used so rarely?
Upcoming WLAN enabled smart phones will simply add this through software. Once you have a computer with enough power in a handset, it's all software.
Every 802.11b wireless device I've ever heard of sucks batteries like a fat kid with a slurpy. The example the article uses is a hospital staff. Is the phone going to last an entire 18-hour shift without recharging? That would be seriously impressive.
Secondly, why the need to have a special WAP? I can see having to have some sort of control-device, that's obvious. But it really ought to work with any standard WAP, and route to the PBX. I see that really hurting the chances of wide-spread adoption in a lot of places (like my house!). It would be like having a IP telephony system that made you replace all your hubs and switches. Just ain't gonna happen.
I wonder how long the batteries last on it. They don't mention that in the article, but all of the WinCE devices I have ever used didn't last all that long. I assume that it would not last as long as the smartphone's as it probably has to search for the Wi-Fi all the time.
itll be cool if it works. seems something like this could be where the future of cellphones would be going, with the expansion of WiFi being what it is. And if they can make batteries that last.
I've seen the evils of searching for cell networks. I've seen the evils of searching for wi-fi networks. Now you get BOTH!
What a deal, where do I sign...
--Coming up with something clever... please wait...
So basically this is a dupe of an announcement of over a year ago with almost no new information. Way to go editors!
Its small poacket size box which has bluetooth capability. You can use a bt headset and a pocketpc/palm with bluetooth to connect to it. And it can make gsm calls, has voip stack comes with its own sip server, and works with any access point.
here is the link
you will find some info on the company and product
BAIN http://www.devslashzero.com
What about incoming calls? The incoming calls will normally be routed to the cellular network; your cell provider doesn't know (or want the help) when your phone is on a WLAN. Outgoing would obviously go through the WLAN, but would show up differently on CallerID.
I suppose if you had an office number that forwarded to the phone when you left the base office, then incoming calls could be "seamless" to the caller. It would only work at that office though, not at home, but you'd still save on outgoing calls.
It is NOT pronounced Win See Ee.
From Dictionary.com.
Wince -
To shrink or start involuntarily, as in pain or distress; flinch.
For once Microsoft gets it right.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
This isn't a first - the Hitara 3800 series came out about six months ago, which can do everything this device Avaya, Motorola and Proxim "invented" does. And for fans of open source, it runs Linux, not M$ crap. Having looked at specs for both devices, the Hitara certainly seems to have better pipeline architechture as well. Another example of open source and open engineering processes leading to better designed hardware.
On the 0th day, God created C
Didn't show up on a Google search. Do you have a link to the product or news announcement?
Aren't there already PBXs that can do POTS <-> VoIP style connections? I seem to remember hearing about them, and a quick Google for them shows they aren't exactly unheard of.
Surely, if a phone has a basic 802.11 capability, the effort to write a Java or Symbian app to do the VoIP with the PBX wouldn't be amazingly difficult. And, scarily enough, it might even be platform dependant (or JVM dependant - whichever way your personal bias runs...)
[root@GRIFFIN root]# rpm -e coffee-1.22.3-1a.i386.rpm
error: removing these packages would break dependencies:
Is the "IT" section new at Slashdot? I don't remember ever seeing it, or this color scheme. Bah, I think it's great, I just wonder why there wasn't a formal announcement. If it's a new section anyway.
What?
Can you hear me now?
HOLD ON A SECOND I'M REBOOTING MY PHONE!
Can you hear me now?
Can you hear me now?
Dammit, another bluescreen! *whacks phone*
Christ, that car came out of NOWHERE! Watch where you're going, asshole!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. ;)
The intent of this phone is not for the home user. If you read the article, you can basically use the cell phone as your office phone... it becomes an extension while you are in the office, and then you can use it on the road. In order to use the Wireless LAN and VoIP, it'll need to authenticate with the PBX.
You could theoretically use VoIP outside the office if you have some way to VPN tunnel back to the office and authenticate with the PBX once again. A VPN client on WinCE might work, in which case, it doesn't really matter what access point McDonalds is using.
Wow, slap an iPod on there and it could even change channels!
My reception or lack there of using TDMA or GSM is bad enough already.
AND this thing runs windows?
Begin No Carrier joke posts now!
If I understand the article, you're stuck with their phones, their access points(!) their PBX and their service. While requiring certain phones and PBX makes sense, I don't see the point of requiring all-new 802.11 access points especially, and that makes me wonder if some artificial restrictions have been designed in to force lock-in when (not if) competitiors come up with similar systems.
- connect to the internet with the phone (if it had GPRS or equivalent)
- ship the connection to my laptop via bluetooth
- share that connection over a wireless card
- connect to the wireless with the phone
- GOTO 2
- ...
- Profit!
?Every 802.11b wireless device I've ever heard of sucks batteries like a fat kid with a slurpy.
You mean Slurpee .
bluetooth.
serious, this can be implemented on existing
infrastructure. if the computer has bluetooth and
the cellphone has it too. you don't even need WiFi.
it's not gmail, it's actually QNX. it did take them several hours to a full day and a half to send me my email (two seperate accounts) to view the downloads page.
the 30 day evauluation will only drop to a lesser enhanced mode but it's still a usable system from then on.
Eh, seriously, I doubt many users commenting here have actually used Windows CE itself because it DOESN'T EXIST!, Windows CE is the core on which Pocket PC 2002, Windows Mobile 2003 and the Smartphone edition is built on. Windows CE does NOT exist as a standalone edition that can be compared. Device vendors make a Windows CE that is unique to each manufacturer and device. That is: Microsoft is not involved in the support of WinCE WHATSOEVER, no service packs, no patches. If you have a Windows CE that is MORE unstable than Windows XP then you are using embedded devices that have some serious driver issues... I've used the Windows CE 3.0 and 4.2 cored Pocket PC systems and I'm pretty satisifed with the direction is going in, bar none the Palm OS is still more efficient, if less technically competent (again OS6 excepted). People seriously need to start thinking before they post uninformed crap...
Alcatel is preparing a solution for British Telcom, that will work with your existing bluetooth mobile. It uses a special basestation that links in the ADSL network, to redirect your GSM calls over a wired connection. It requires support in the telecom network for relaying and forking support, so it's not something that you install outside of the BT network, though. More info at http://www.btplc.com/Innovation/Mobility/everywher e/
:-)
Note: I work for Alcatel Belgium (that's why I post anonymously), but not on this project. I share a room with those people though
SIP is an interesting protocol that has a lot of support.
I recently purchased a VOIP router that uses SIP protocol to integrate my PTSN (Public Telephone Switched Network) service with VOIP. The Box, a Sipura SPA3000 (http://www.sipura.com), has a jack for a phone line, a jack for a standard telephone, and an ethernet jack which plugs into my router. The telephone rings and dials just like an ordinary phone.
I can access the VOIP network by calling my home phone and entering a code, or I can access my PTSN line remotely from the VOIP network. I'm using Free World Dialup (http://www.pulver.com/fwd) which is one of many Free Peer to Peer VOIP networks. The FWD server is used only to establish the Peer to Peer voice connection. Anybody within the network can connect free of charge.
There are a variety of SIP VOIP applications hosted on Sourceforge. It's very easy to establish your own SIP server and network.
SIP is a full duplex protocol. I don't really understand why a push to talk function is provided with SIP / cellular phone referenced in the article. It's simply not necessary unless you're running a software phone on a PC or Laptop without a headset. (Audio Feedback and Echo may be a problem)
"push to talk" refers to stateless walkie-talkie style communication, like Nextel does. It doesn't mean you have to push a button to speak in telephone mode -- it just means you can use your phone to do point-to-point packet communication, in addition to the traditional dial/ring/answer/connect modality.
I'll be damned if i let some cell pphone toting war driver get into my network.looks like it's time to bump up the security abit.
homey, git yer' MAC filter, a diercoinal anntener', and yer shot gun. We's goin' to WAR!
1. Yes, we are proprietary in terms of operability. The major reason is that while Cisco are good at routers and networking hardware, they are years behind us for VoIP features. Remember that Avaya came out of Lucent with the Definity PBX which has now been migrated to server platforms that bring across the Definity's very rich feature set. While it is proprietary, the fact is that this product is designed for business, not for the casual home user, and therefore needs to have access to call-centre features like ACD & hunt groups and PBX features liek call-forwarding & voicemail.
2. We do currently have interoparability with Cisco using them as H.323 gateways. That should still be there with the SIP server platform (Linux based) just more transparent.
3. Although I've not seen the handsets yet, it make sense that they run WinCE because that's (unfortunately) the prevalent OS in handhelds currently. However, in some consolation, out core telephony servers are Red Hat Linux based platforms because (as I understand it) the development team could not get either Windows NT or 2000 to run fast or stable enough for major enterprise platforms. Our small business server, the S8100, is Windows 2000 based but the S8300, S8500 & S8700 (for medium to large enterprises) are Linux-based.
I hope this clears up some of the questions that I've seen on this topic.
Seriously, that's the best laugh I've had for ages. I love it when people on Slashdot advocate totally inappropriate solutions with such certainty. It's so... quaint.
-------
Can you hear me now?
Of course I fucking can! You're having to stand 8cm away from me so that the Bluetooth keeps working.
Well, it is called WinCE, now, isn't it? Seems rather apt to me ...
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."