The Wi-Fi in Your Handset

[Jerry Raia]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/technology/29phones.html?ex=1311825600&en=e9c6b72f45daa061&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss' target='_blank'>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/technology/29phones.html?ex=1311825600&en=e9c6b72f45daa061&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss</a><br /><br /></div><i>"What if, instead of burning up minutes on your cellphone plan, you could make free or cheap calls over the wireless networks that allow Internet access in many coffee shops, airports and homes? New phones coming on the market will allow just that. Instead of relying on standard cellphone networks, the phones will make use of the anarchic global patchwork of so-called Wi-Fi hotspots. Other models will be able to switch easily between the two modes."</i><br /><br />We keep hearing about this and it sounds great. Even more interesting is the carriers seem to be trying to get on board in one way or another. I think that is a wise move because people will obviously want this once they see what it can do for them.

[Kris Kumar]

Details about T-Mobile's UMA plans. (http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/08/01/t-mobiles-uma-goodies-exposed/)

[Jerry Raia]

Thanks Kris. Looks like there are still bugs to work out. :)

[Kris Kumar]

Instead of this UMA technology where the phone switches not only the network type (cell vs Wifi) but also the call type (voice vs VoIP), wouldn't it make sense for someone to make just a data phone that uses EV-DO or 3G for making VoIP calls and when you encounter a stronger home network, you switch to VoIP over Wifi. Isn't that a bit more simpler? :?

But I guess technology always has to evolve from the complicated to the simple. ;-) Super expensive to el-cheapoh.

[iclark]

Major barrier to entry for this type of solution is unstable quality. My imate SP5 has wifi and pick up free wifi all the time.

At work we pulled the plug on Voip for any customer related calls as we could not control the quality. We even went as far as putting in dedicated DSL lines for voice. Still we got times where the quality of the calls was poor resulting in frustrated customers and staff.

Skype is also suffering from similar issues with quality. I will kill a sypke call and telephone the person to get good voice quality.

Voice quality and reliability outweigh cost at a business level. We will always pay to get a real quality phone call rather than suffer with a poor quality cheaper call. Hence the challenge. Copper call quality does not suffer. WIFI does.