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Cringely Shows How to Get Free Cell Calls
SafariShane writes "In this week's pulpit, Bob describes how to properly use new software from a company called IPDrum. Basically, you use the free mobile-to-mobile feature of any major carrier to call a dedicated cell phone attached to your computer. That call is then connected to Skype, allowing you to make free cell calls just about anywhere. Just how long till someone does this on a large scale, by overselling the dedicated lines, and starts selling true unlimited cell plans?"
I think it was on Slashdot, but I can't find the link.
There are already companies that offer this. For example, metroPCS which offers unlimited calls. No minute counting.
For $40 a month, you get unlimited local and long distance calls.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
While it's a step in the right direction, if you want to call somebody on a landline, you still have to pay for the SkypeOut, yes?
It seems like a lot of trouble for little savings. I guess my perspective would be different if I was a very mobile person who needed to make frequent out-of-country calls (more common in Europe, yes, I know).
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
http://www.skype.com/products/skype/linux/
By running from Skype to a mobile phone, you use two fairly crappy codecs: iLBC at 13 kilobits per second on top of GSM at 12 kilobits per second. On their own, each one is marginally tolerable, but I would rather gouge my eardrums out with a dagger than listen to the two codecs combined.
You're using Firefox I guess? If firefox doesn't recognise a url entered as a url it does an "I'm Feeling Lucky" google search on the "url" entered. The link is broken and is starts with "http" and the first result on searching for http (and thus the I'm Feeling Lucky link) on Google is Microsoft.com.
Linux Wireless Hardware in the UK
Before anybody complains that skype-to-skype calls are free, keep in mind that that isn't truely unlimited; that's the exact same restriction that the mobile phone companies put on their same-network unlimited plans, in that the person you are calling must be on skype as well.
There are two types of unlimited. Unlimited minutes to any local number, and unlimited minutes to ANY long distance or international number. Skype-to-skype isn't to anybody, only people with skype.
Don't get me wrong, this whole plan is genious, and it allows people to get skype's SkypeOut rates for their cellphones, and if the computer is hooked up to the POTS itself then free local.
Working for an upcoming VoIP company, I can see where things are headed. Vonage is already connecting customers with WiFi phones. This means you have phone service, and you can use this phone anywhere there is a WiFi connection -- your office, Starbucks, or whatever.
Since this upcoming VoIP company is an offshoot of a Wireless ISP, we also get to hear all the talk about WiMAX. Intel and Nokia are teaming up to implement it on a massive scale. Assuming that the frequency licensing does not become an issue, consumers will be able to purchase true nomadic high-speed connections (with speeds probably in the vicinity of today's mid-range DSL) for roughly the same price we pay today for our broadband.
The obvious combination of these ideas is a phone that connects to a VoIP network over a nomadic WiMAX connection. $200 hardware, $50 for your internet connection, and another $25 a month for the phone service that you can take anywhere. As I posted above, at least one VoIP provider is offering unlimited international calling. Even if the rates for VoIP increase considerably, this is still well below the threshold for cost benefit.
Mods: Do you disagree with me? Go ahead and mod me down. Meta-mods will sort it out. Good luck!
Flash has been on PDA's and PocketPC's for a few years now...
s /pda.html
http://www.macromedia.com/mobile/supported_device
Bah, I've been doing this for years. Two applications:
1. Calling my Asterix box and having it forward to regular numbers
2. Calling my Dial-Up Server and surfing the internet
Although the DUN Server is a little slow (9600 baud), it still serves it purpose of retrieving email. I used to have unlimited text messaging on my cell plan, I could just send commands (ie shutdown -r now) to my servers, but that option got removed.
Plus, the camera remains single use -- how many solder/desolder cycles is that chip gonna survive?
Depends. The chip is electrically identical to a SmartMedia card, so (provided you can successfully desolder the chip) why not just solder on a SmartMedia socket?
You just described a VOIP provider ;)
I'm not sure what they call the ones that work they way you describe, but the idea is you call a local number, get another dial tone, then call a long distance number.
On the other hand, imagine a free (opensource?) service that tracked all such numbers in all locations, and also when they were in use (Each "node" could report to the master server when it was in use). The only trick about this is getting the numbers to the people. As in, person A wants to make a call, and person B's node is ready, but how does person A get person B's number.
On a cellphone this is somewhat easy, since they are data enabled devices. A phone (or better, smartphone) could query the master server for a number. However doing it from home might be harder. You could always get a number through a computer, and then dial the node.
Another possible solution is to have a small number of "master" nodes in each calling area. This node would serve only to stay connected long enough to forward your call to an available node. It would only have to be connected for as long as it took to redirect the call and hang up.
On the other hand, this isn't terribly easier than making the call from the computer in the first place, and each call uses up two nodes. All we really need is one node, to get is into the POTS. So here is what I propose.
Opensource projects often survive on donations. Well, do the same thing, and use the donations to support one node in each major city. Start with a few of the largest cities (or calling areas, often multiple area codes are local calls.) In each (or one for starters) city, build a node. Nothing complicated, somebody gets a business line capable of making multiple outgoing calls. The cost of the node is the business phone line and an internet connection to support it.
I don't know how much bandwidth SIP/IAX uses, but I'm going to guess 24kbit per connection, since that's way more than enough for POTS quality voice. A residential DSL/cable line with 640kbit of usable bandwidth could support 26 simultaneous calls. Probably costs $40 per month canadian. I have no idea how much a business line costs.
So the trick to getting this to work is simply donations. Monetary donations can go towards the business line, and internet bandwidth can be donated directly or covered by cash donations. The more donations and popular your service, the larger and more cost effective the broadband line. A cogent line for $1000/mth could support 3500 calls, or a large number of users.
I have no idea if this could work. Just a crazy idea. Who knows. I think it's feasible. Just have to start small and grow.
Nah, you can get a 2-phone plan for 49.99 and unlimited VOIP for 19.99 (not from skype). At least you could when I came up with this idea six months before Cringley (actually inspired by one of his articles though. Also, turns out other people had the idea too). Truly unlimited domestic minutes along with super-low VOIP rates on international cell-phone calls could actually be worth $70 for really heavy users (big plans can get up in the $100s, plus international charges on top). Also, you might be able to save more by going for a family plan with more phones. You could do two people with four phones, or three people with six. I wouldn't want to be the guy setting up the PBX, though.
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