T-Mobile launched their [EMAIL PROTECTED] service at the end of June.
I picked up one of these cell phones a few weeks ago. The deal is for
an extra $10/month, you get unlimited calls in the US if they are
made over wifi. The wifi connection generally works with any open AP,
or if you know the security key you can enter that. It also
automatically connects to T-Mobile Hotspots, such as might be found
at Starbucks. Once you start a call on wifi, you can move out of wifi
range into tower range it seamlessly switches over. The call is
billed according to where it starts.
I had actually sampled a T-Mobile phone, then returned it the day
this [EMAIL PROTECTED] service launched. Most of the places I hoped to use
it, I had no signal. But I like this new combo phone quite a bit.
For example: my WISP office is in my basement. I've used Verizon cell
phones for years, based on having them work almost everywhere I go.
But no service in my basement. The T-Mobile phone happily uses my
net connection and sounds better than any cell phone I have used.
Ditto for a few locations at work, such as a server room. No cell
service, but wifi is fine.
One thing I don't like is that the phone doesn't include a web
browser. If you are at a location that requires agreeing to TOS
before using the wifi, you can't do that just using the phone.
I've used some other VOIP systems before (Packet 8, Skype, almost
went with SunRocket - that was close) but haven't really liked them.
------
An idea for WISPA leadership: think about brokering a deal with T-
Mobile to expand their hotspots to members POPs. They only have about
7500 hotspots in the US. For example, there are none in Michigan's
Upper Peninsula, and the only one in the north half of the Lower
Peninsula is Traverse City.
----
Some technical details:
The T-Mobile phone uses technology called UMA to encapsulate GSM over
IP. The packets are UDP encapsulated IpSec. The call I monitored
averaged 60 packets/sec. All traffic was to/from one IP address using
port 4500. Bandwidth used was 9516 bytes/second average. Most packets
were 158 bytes (the longest seen), a few were 142, and occasionally
60 bytes.
-John
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