Comments on: Earthlink To Introduce WiFi Phones

By: Shonika

Shonika — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 16:35:23 +0000

As I have been following this company since the summer of 2003 and have been waiting for a non-US Carrier (my speculation on that was either a cable company or a major content provider would have picked up their handhelds). I think that one of the companies they may be considering (and if they are not, they should be) is Calypso Wireless. They are a Miami Lakes, FL that manufacture a few handhelds that seamlessly transfer between Wi-Fi and cellular network. They have agreements in place with a few carriers in Europe as well as in China but no U.S. agreements in place as of yet. There time is coming due soon. And inking a deal with Earthlink would be a great place to start.

By: Khm

Khm — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:57:29 +0000

The IP3000 Wi-Fi VoIP (SIP) phone is the first, waiting for more products in the near future

By: Khm

Khm — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:55:57 +0000

Oh, sorry, forgot the shop link :) – http://products.initech.com.au/

By: Khm

Khm — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:54:59 +0000

Hi people! Let us welcome the new wave of Wi-Fi&SIP – not just look at it but U can order! Registration is available here, free for any customer and with great opportunities for resellers – khm.cellwireless.com

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 02:40:48 +0000

Jesse, Tropos is the HW vendor, but Moto is doing the implementations and is providing LOTS of backhaul for the Tropos product…at least until they start using their own Moto Duos in the future. Don't be surprised to see Moto move into that space…they have been very focused and very smart of late. Tie that into their "ownership" of the emergency services markets and it will make even more sense.

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 21:35:22 +0000

Actually Mark, I'm pretty sure it is Tropos that has been working the most with Earthlink. I would be very surprised to see Moto get into the WiFi only handset game. They will certainly be players in the dual-mode handset business, but likely through big name carriers like Cingular who will find ways to make you pay to use WiFi.

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 21:31:38 +0000

Kimo, if you want the phone to work indoors (albeit only at your own home) you spend $20 on a wireless bridge (i.e. the cheapest router you can find at Bestbuy/Circuit City).

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 05:14:21 +0000

Come on folks, think about who is working with EarthLink on all of these networks: Motorola. If you're curious about who would be the ideal partner (and derive the most benefit) from these WiFi handset rollouts, look no further than Moto. They're not announced, they're not showing, but they will be shipping. And when Moto and Nokia (already in the market with dual-radio options) get into the game, then it gets interesting. Think of home phone replacement and other types of usages…

By: Kimo Crossman

Kimo Crossman — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 02:08:51 +0000

Well indoor coverage for Municipal WiFi is still the holy grail, even now, Tempe, AZ’s muni wifi has issues indoors.

http://news.com.com/2100-7351-6088661.html

Not sure one would desire a wifi phone that only works reliably outdoors.

By: chris holland

chris holland — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 20:43:16 +0000

A year ago I bought a Zyxel Prestige WiFi phone, which i’d configured with my EarthLink SIP account. So people could ring it by plugging hollandct@earthlink.net into any SIP-able program (or device) such as SJPhone (http://www.sjlabs.com), GizmoProject (http://www.gizmoproject.com/) or MindSpring (http://www.mindspring.com/) (fka VLing). I also have a free ipkall.com washington-state number forwarding all calls to my SIP address. So when people call that number, it also rings the Zyxel. I demoed most of this at BarCamp Los Angeles a few months back. good times :)

But yeah, the Zyxel’s battery life does suck while it’s “signed-in”.