AboutGerry Magill Expertise I am a Software Architect employed by a large multi-national communications company providing VoIP and tradtional TDM communications to Enterprise customers.
Experience
Past/Present clients IBM, SBS, Siemens, KPMG, Bank Berlin, Commerzbank
Expert: Gerry Magill Date: 12/18/2007 Subject: want to use voip
Question QUESTION: sip phones voip phone what are they. i have 3 cellphones now 2 verizon. one unlocked i use when i go abroad... sim chip type ...
what is the cheapest way to have no land phone at home and use VOIP.... i saw Iconnecthere.com they charge by the month.. free incomong and about 2 cents going out.
They said buy a router and they give you a device and you plug your phone into it. i guess we would use a portable so could walk around the house.. or could i use my gsm unlocked phone? a bit confused... so what is cheapest way not to have a land phone but to use voip to have make a receive calls cheaply.. marv
ANSWER: VoIP is short for voice over the IP protocol. IP is what is used to address data packets through a network, e.g. the internet. When you surf the net or go online to read email, etc. your data packets go over that IP connection already. VoIP simply adds voice as another service (like email or web browsing) that can also go accross that connection.
SIP is short for Session Initiation Protocol. This is a relatively new protocol that engineers have thought up to connect voice converstations easily through the IP network. There have been others in the past such as H.323 but they were cumbersome to program and never gained the widespread usage that SIP has enjoyed lately.
Many vendors have sprung up offering VoIP service because most people nowadays already have a high speed internet connection but many dont yet do voice over it. Instead they just surf at faster speeds. Because anyone can now offer anyone else internet telephone service, the market has got very competitive and great rates can be found. Other vendors can be found here:
Which one is the best for you depends on your location and where you most want to call to? e.g. if you are in USA and call a lot overseas, you may want to look at broadvoice.com rather than vonage.com which serves mainly USA.
If you are in Europe you may want to look at sipgate.uk or sipgate.de
When you decide which one works out cheapest for you, you usually get a free analog to SIP convertor box. This allows you to hook up your existing analog phone or portable home phone and use the service just as if it were your regular land line. Other vendors build this functionality into a home router, but the concept is always the same.
VoIP will not work with your cell phone or GSM phone. It is a method only of replacing the need for a land line, which can be very expensive - especially if you call long distance.
Let me know if you still have questions.
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QUESTION: iconnecthere.com seems good but i can only connect one phone... if internet is in the bedroom and i get a call and i am in the other room..its not convenient... i heard that tmobile was offering.. the following.. when you have their service and you get home and use wifi you use tahta and dont use your minutes..... ;l;It’s called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, and it’s absolutely ingenious. It could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, and yet enrich T-Mobile at the same time. In the cellphone world, win-win plays like that are extremely rare.
Here’s the basic idea. If you’re willing to pay $10 a month on top of a regular T-Mobile voice plan, you get a special cellphone. When you’re out and about, it works like any other phone; calls eat up your monthly minutes as usual.
But when it’s in a Wi-Fi wireless Internet hot spot, this phone offers a huge bargain: all your calls are free. You use it and dial it the same as always — you still get call hold, caller ID, three-way calling and all the other features — but now your voice is carried by the Internet rather than the cellular airwaves.
These phones hand off your calls from Wi-Fi network to cell network seamlessly and automatically, without a single crackle or pop to punctuate the switch. As you walk out of a hot spot, fewer and fewer Wi-Fi signal bars appear on the screen, until — blink! — the T-Mobile network bars replace them. (The handoff as you move in the opposite direction, from the cell network into a hot spot, is also seamless, but takes slightly longer, about a minute.)
O.K., but how often are you in a Wi-Fi hot spot? With this plan, about 14 hours a day. T-Mobile gives you a wireless router (transmitter) for your house — also free, after a $50 rebate. Connect it to your high-speed Internet modem, and in about a minute, you’ve got a wireless home network. Your computer can use it to surf the Web wirelessly — and now all of your home phone calls are free.
Answer Yes dual mode Wi-Fi / cellular phones are available in the US and some other countries. I am guessing from the information that you are in USA, right?
Motorola is the leading vendor of these phones but they only work with a few cellular carriers who have invested in the technology.
You should also consider where you are calling to. If its USA only, then this might work for you.
Like all things - nothing is ever "free". You have to consider that T-Mobile's @HOME service only works with a qualified nationwide plan at $39.99 /month or higher and will not work with a data or business plan. The @HOME package adds another $19.99 /month committment. You also have to take two years service which will mean you have signed up for an investment of around $1,440 + Tax.
You will also need a phone that supports this dual band radio technology. Currently they offer one for $49.99 or $249.99
You would really need to call a lot with the US to make this pay.
