Slashdot Mirror
Vonage Testing Mobile VoIP Service Routers
kamikaze-Tech writes "In a Vonage VoIP Forum article
titled
Vonage Testing Mobile VoIP Service Routers
we learn that Vonage is doing customer trials involving a new Linksys Wi-Fi mobile service router. From the article comes the claim: "With the special router and handset, individual customers would be free to roam about their home or office, untethered from a modem or phone jack and without a connection to a laptop or desktop computer."
Suggesting the new routers are geared for installation in Wi-Fi hot spots: "In theory, someone should be able to walk into a Wi-Fi-enabled cafe, fire up a laptop, log on to the Internet and start dialing. But that now requires technical know-how and configuration hassles that most consumers don't want to deal with. The new routers are designed to do most of the heavy lifting.""
Imagine! Phones without wires!!
We live in exciting times!
air and light and time and space
Out in public? What happens when this becomes popular and there are a few people using up all the bandwidth at these hotspots? VoIP isn't exactly the least demanding application ever.
If it becomes that popular, I can see places that offer free wireless access blocking VoIP access.
Walk into hotspot.
Acquire connection.
Start Skype.
Make call.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
right now you might pay for a phone line, a fax line, a cellphone, cable tv and internet.
there are lots of convergences going on, but this is a big one. the day may be coming when you spend 1/4 or 1/3 of what you are paying now for the whole suite of pipes.
Why not take the money from the Vonage account and all the shit you need to buy to make it work and apply it to more cellphone minutes?
I've already been testing a handset that lets me hop on an 802.11b network... Only thing it's missing is a web interface to permit me to click the "I Agree" button on some captive portals, and I've been told its "in the next release" (snicker). It's decent, but still B. I'm looking forward to the G version I can give my boss instead of his desk phone (since he's prone to wandering the office instead of sitting in a chair). I'd be curious to see how this does with consumers, though I think most of us are going to opt for a headset and softphone while at Starbucks, if we even bother using VoIP on a shared connection like that. ;-)
Besides, with mobile carriers like MetroPCS (South FL and some of NC) offering no-limit use for $40, and carriers like Nextel offering unlimited incoming calls for $59, why would I wander around looking for a hotspot? I don't like coffee shops *that* much.
I already use Vonage and think VOIP is great. Not quite "Mom-Easy" to setup but otherwise my complaints are few.
That said,I'm still struggling to see the market for these mobile versions. How is a VOIP phone through a WiFi hotspot superior to my GSM cell phone? I've got both VOIP and cell service and I don't see the former replacing the latter for mobile communications. VOIP is cheaper sure, but WAY more limited for mobile communications. Much better suited for office work IMO. Even assuming these new devices work reasonably well, my DSL service gets overwhelmed pretty easily if I'm using Vonage and doing pretty much anything else at the same time. I can easily see two or three of these things being brought into a coffee shop and soaking up all the bandwidth.
"...requires technical know-how and configuration hassles that most consumers don't want to deal with."
Yup, the 'technical know-how and configuration hassles' of many broadband connections are currently being 'dealt with' by the nice folks at the cable company, which has allowed many Slashdot readers to use their neighbor's Internet for the last year.
So now we're a year away from being able to use their long distance service too, I guess.
Vonage's tag line should be "Get your neighbor to sign up!"
The only acceptable defense of scientific results is to say that they were the product of the Scientific Method.
At the router level, you can prioritize packet types. It is no big deal to lower the VOip traffic to ensure web users maintain acceptable bandwidth. In most installations, people apply the reverse standard in prioritizing VOIP over http, but in the cafe scenario, I can see it going this way.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
All the WiFi phones I've seen are ridiculously expensive. Maybe if the price on these types of phones comes down it will be worth it. Otherwise it's a better deal to get an ATA for your home/office and use a regular cordless phone--and all your phones can work off the ATA instead of just one phone.
Being able to walk into a hotspot to use it would be nice I guess, but why not just use a cell phone for these occasions? The good thing is I could see this driving down the cost of WiFi phones.
Next Vonage will offer 56K dialup through wifi.
What the heck do we need this for?? As a previous user commented - use a cell phone, use a cordless phone - this makes little or no sense to me. Technology for the sake of technology is not practical!
Because you won't get Customer Service to help you at all. I tried for the final three months I had Vonage to get in touch with _anyone_ there about the service issues I was having, with zero luck. I finally went back to Ma Bell, who will at least listen and provides the services I need.
I'll go back when they get some decent CS skills.
I currently use my laptop and softphone from Vonage quite frequently at the local coffee house that offers free wi-fi and have tried to use it at panera bread which offers free WI-FI. However, I have been able to get it to work rather infrequently at Panera. At the local coffee house I open up my laptop, load the softphone, and then attach my headset. The question people typically ask is why not use your cell-phone.
I can receive calls for free which would otherwise use my minutes, I can dial 1800 numbers which is what my university uses for its conference calls for free, and most importantly, it is the best way to have office hours when I am away from the university. I recently did my dissertation's first defense using the softphone and system to connect to all my committee members and did not have an issue. Recently, at a conference the second author of the work was unable to attend but had some new data that he wanted to present. I loaded the softphone and dialed into him and using the conference system called raindance and the conferences system, he was able to present the data without an issue.
I see the progression of Vonage being very useful for those of us that for work have seen our laptops becoming more important then the air we breathe.
* No contracts
* Your virtual phone numbers
* Calling to Canada
* Unlimited minutes. No worrying about going over minutes/roaming.
Just a couple reasons. I have a bare-bones cell phone service through MetroPCS and my home phone through Vonage. For everything, I pay about $50/mo total. Something like this might me useful to me, as I'm often in a hotspot.
while this might not be too practical right now, consider what happens when WiMax becomes available almost anywhere. no need for a separate internet and cellphone account - its integrated! Vonage seems to be planting the seeds so they are ready when wireless internet is available anwhere.
People seem to believe 802.11 is required for a wireless home phone but that is not true. The real point behind using 802.11 for VoIP is so you can build the MTA into the phone and use it not just at home but roam from any home/buisness/hotel/coffee shop with wireless internet access.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
I'm looking forward to the day where I can use my $30/month wireless phone w/3G service to connect to a VOIP gateway over the data channel and chat with my buddies overseas for some rational fee. As things stand now, you either need to use a phone card or allow your carrier to drive a VW microbus up your nether regions to make international calls.
So, this is supposed to allow Vonage users to use Wi-Fi handsets? I'm not clear what these routers do differently than any other router that supports SIP NAT traversal. The article mentions selling this to hotspot operators; what does this router offer an operator? Can somebody explain?