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Best Phone For a Wi-Fi-Only Location?
bendodge writes "I am planning on heading to a university in a remote area with very poor cellular service (the only signal is spotty Verizon voice, no data). However, the entire campus is thoroughly blanketed in Wi-Fi. I am trying to find the best and most economical 'Wi-Fi phone' or else hack one together. Belkin/Netgear sell what is essentially a portable Skype device for $180. These folks recommend outfitting an iPod Touch with a mic and VoIP apps. I am looking for something that can make and receive calls to and from landlines with incoming call notification. What experiences have Slashdot readers had and what would you recommend?"
The Belkin WiFi phone sounds like a good idea. The trouble with using an iPod touch would be the battery life with WiFi on. I've tried to browse for an hour so on my iPod Touch and it severely drains the battery. Why get a music player/gaming device if what you really need is a phone? Yup. Get the Belkin phone and subscribe to SkypeOut. I've been pretty satisfied with the call experience even when I've made international calls. Safest way to go IMO.
The E-series is a great solution, or if you want a more geeky toy, the N900. Prepare to charge the phone daily though, if you keep the WiFi active with Skype online all day.
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I own a Belkin WIFI Skype phone, I used it as a home phone with Skype in/out and in general it's pretty neat BUT, it drops calls, a lot. It drops calls almost as bad as AT&T.
I have a good solid WIFI system and Skype on my iPhone via my WIFI works without flaw. I do not have WIFI issues.
The Belkin randomly drops calls even when I am within 6 feet of the base and it also randomly locks up and randomly reboots.
If you can put up with that, it's neat. If you require flawless service, skip the Belkin. They have not updated the firmware in it since it was first made available.
If you google the device you will see many other complaining of the same problems.
Disclaimer: That is MY personal experience with the Belkin WIFI Skype phone.
T-Mobile's UMA-enabled phones do look like good choices. Their current line-up of UMA phones includes the BlackBerry Bold 9700, Curve 8520, and the Nokia E73 Mode. Shop around at T-Mobile directly (including any campus discounts), Wirefly.com, Amazon.com, etc.
That doesn't hold true with other distros - I've tried multiple Debian and Ubuntu derivatives and they've had dependencies problems, unlike Debian itself.
The system might be the same, but I'm willing to bet they have their own repository, and that's important for a safe upgrade path.
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However, do check the quality of T-Mobile's UMA implementation and how UMA works in practice - some don't seem so good: http://www.orangeproblems.co.uk/mobiles/viewtopic.php?p=1409
T-Mobile's UMA-enabled phones do look like good choices. Their current line-up of UMA phones includes the BlackBerry Bold 9700, Curve 8520, and the Nokia E73 Mode. Shop around at T-Mobile directly (including any campus discounts), Wirefly.com, Amazon.com, etc.
I use my T-Mobile Blackberry all over the world, anywhere there is wifi. The UMA works well, no dropped calls.
Mod parent up, I use my TMobile BlackBerry 9700 in UMA mode more than I do on-network. They really got it right, it just works. Even cell-to-wifi and wifi-to-cell handoffs work without dropping a call usually, and that's impressive. All services work over wifi (mms, sms, email, pin, BlackBerry messenger, and all data apps like browsing and 3rd party stuff - google talk etc). I'm pleased. :)
PS: I'm posting this from it too
Why not get a used 3G iphone? They are dirt cheap now...unlock it, put a prepaid AT&T card in it if you so desire, or just put skype on it if you want to use WiFi only.
I'm on my second T-Mobile Blackberry (Bold 9700) that has this capability, and they work great for WiFi calling. I work out of my basement, and there weren't a lot of options for cell reception. I don't subscribe to their WiFi calling, which means calls use my minutes, but they have a $10/mo plan for unlimited calls over WiFi.
I work at a university and we've tried to set up the same things on our wifi network. The problem is that in order to use our wifi, you have to log in via a web browser first. Additionally, whenever the device sleeps, it releases the dhcp ip, so when it awakes, you have to redo this process unless you can get on a whitelist. Our departmental devices can, but I doubt they'd allow a student this convenience. You may wish to wait until you get to college and see how the network functions before buying something.
I'm sorry- but that's the worst buying advice on this page. Android doesn't even support http proxyies - and hence is utterly useless in most offices and universities.
The N900 is basically a commercially available development model. I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you're willing to go hack around in the terminal a little and maybe do some programming on your own; if you think that the terminal is where you catch your flight, you'll probably be happier with an iPhone or Android or something, honestly.
On the other hand, if you're willing to do some hacking, the benefits can be enormous. I've got fucking AdblockPro running on my N900's browser - MicroB is just a specialized version of Firefox, so the plugin works. It doesn't Just Work (tm), but if you mess around with permissions enough it works eventually. ABP is kind of slow on a mobile computer (I think it relies heavily on regexes or something), but it's nowhere near as slow as downloading all those goddamn ads.