Vonage softphone for Treo Ace?
Engadget is torturing me. They have a brief report up on Vonage’s new WiFi SIP phone, and at the end of the article, they dropped this little snippet:
Oh, and they have a softphone VoIP client that’ll work on the new Treo 610/Treo Ace and other Palm handhelds on the way. We’ll obviously have way more on all of this in a few weeks.
Thanks, guys, that’s really helpful. The interesting thing that the leaked specs for the Treo Ace don’t really include a network interface that’s suitable for VoIP–it has Bluetooth, but that’s too short-range to really be practical for a SIP phone. Now, remember that the Treo Ace leak came from Sprint, who, along with Verizon, uses CDMA phones. Neither CDMA provider goes for cutting-edge phones. Even Bluetooth is usually to racy for them. Given that, I suppose that there’s a slim chance that the GSM version of the Treo Ace could include WiFi, but I’d view it as really unlikely. It’s slightly less unlikely that there will be two GSM models, one with 802.11 and one without, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that, either. I haven’t heard a single leak that suggests that a WiFi Treo is on the way.
On the positive side, the fact that they’re talking about the new Treo and saying that they’ll provide more details in a few weeks gives me some hope that it’ll be announced before too much longer. Although I wasn’t all that excited by the initial Treo Ace leak, I’ve become increasingly interested in it as time goes on. At this point, I wouldn’t say that I’m chomping at the bit to buy one, but I’ll give it some serious consideration once it’s announced. Especially if it’s able to talk SIP to my home Asterisk server.
I thought I would mention that Verizon has implemented their push-to-talk service using VoIP. This service is meant to compete with Nextel. I am delighted to hear that Verizon may soon have a software offering to enable this funtions on the Treo Ace and “other Palm handhelds”. Hopefully this will include the Treo 600s they are selling.
I suppose that could be, but Engadget was talking about Vonage, not Verizon.
Hi,
On Sprint I understand Treo 600 users are getting really fast internet. Why cant the VOIP (Vonage) work over the Cellular Internet connection that the phone is picking up from the Network.
On T-Mobile’s network I don’t believe we are getting sufficient bandwidth yet, but if there were why rely on Blutoothing to an internet-connected computer - use the interent you already have.
I am sure this capability will come sooner or later. It will provide a nice way to avoid long distance charges by using a service like Vonage or Packet8 for example.
Any thoughts?
sam.
Well, bandwidth is only part of the picture. Latency and packet loss are also critical. In 2002 (the last time I had Sprint phone service) I measured latency at almost 1000 ms. That’d add an entire second of delay between speakers, which would make conversation exceptionally difficult. T-Mobile was similar; I haven’t tried measuring with AT&T or Verizon, but their 2/2.5G services are probably similar.
Also, it’s unclear that there’s any financial advantage to doing VoIP over cellular data services.
Personally, I’d love a Treo with VoIP over 802.11b/g. The main VoIP driver wouldn’t be cost savings, but consolidation. In conjunction with Asterisk (or Vonage), I could use it as an addition to my normal home phone system. So, as soon as I walked in the door at home, my cell phone would be able to answer calls placed to my home phone number. I’d also be able to make lower-rate outgoing calls in some circumstances, but that’s a lower priority for me. Especially since my cell plan includes nationwide roaming and long-distance calls, and I rarely use more then half of my plan’s minutes.
Of course, 802.11 on a smartphone has other uses, like fast, unmetered data. That’s really the biggest reason for wanting a WiFi PDA.