I had installed XTen Lite on my Powerbook and coupled it with a Vonage service. I had been using that service for a couple of weeks in San Francisco, but when I came to India, I decided to try it out over the “almost 3G” data connection I have been using to check my email and post blog entries. I wasn’t too sure about the quality of the service for the connection speeds sometime drop down to about 50 kilobits per second. Anyway I wanted to check my voice mails in San Francisco, and dialed out - and before i knew I was pressing the right buttons, scanning my messages.
Next-up, I called a friend of mine in New York. 20 minute conversation over a data connection. Fat chance the cellphone company got to see any part of the revenues from that call. It was a few pennies for Vonage, and a quarter or so for the data connection for 20 minutes. As an aside, it costs about $0.60 cents to call back to the US from India. Times 20, it is about $12. Savings! Savings! (I cannot wait for the EDGE/UMTS/EVDO/EVDV/Whatever to roll out world wide. I think that would be the end of distance.)
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Indian Cellphone Explosion
JOEL JOHNSON — Om Malik is in India doing some work and has blogged about the burgeoning Indian cellphone market. Apparently, it’s set to explode, with over 12 million new subscribers in just the last three months, and companies like Samsung, LG, and …
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Pin dropped
Users traded availability and reliability for mobility and ubiquity when they fell in love with cellular. Looks like they might not have to trade in quality and audibility when moving to VoIP according to Stuart Henshall: What’s more this user…
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Skype over my Cell Phone
I missed this piece from Om Malik , who,
10 comments so far
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how did you connect your phone to your pc — a cable?
have you tried this with a bluetooth headset?
(link)
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so Malik tried it out over the “almost 3G” data connection, but was he on the move ? if he didn’t change of cell then his “almost 3G” connection is just a standard connection to the internet… so no big deal.
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actually i did try it using a sony ericsson bluetooth headset and it is hb60. and as mr. no name asked, yes i was in the back of a car cruising down a highway when i tried this and it worked flawlessly
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Was that “almost 3 G” a CDMA connection or a GPRS/EDGE ?
20 min. celluelar data connection for a quarter? What service provider in India does that?
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I don’t know how you managed to have a decent VoIP over 1xRTT, I would expect the latencies to really disrupt communications along with any lost packets.
I say this out of experience with real 3G networks. I have used the Nokia 6650 on an unloaded network with the very same Xten Lite software and the user experience was pretty bad. Average latency was 277 ms with nary any packet loss. Care to share your experiences on latency and user experience?
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I am using a plan from Reliance Infocomm’s 1xRTT data service which runs at about 144 kbps per second, but you really get around 100 kbps. So yes it is a CDMA connection not edge. the latency was not the greatest but it was not the most awful. i am not sure about the pricing elsewhere, but in india, the price per minute on phone calls is about 2 cents a minute and data is cheaper.
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Hey Om, I took my Vonage line back to Delhi with me this past January. I hooked it up to my Dishnet DSL connection at home in GK-I and the performance was brilliant. I was able to make and receive phone calls with 100% clarity and very little delay. Very cool!
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Hi Om - i’m working in Delhi for a few months and i bought the Reliance CDMA phone - its pretty good most of the time. Have you tried Skype with this connection ? I use their data service - and have had amazing clarity when i use Skype(not always - i must admit, still its pretty good) to talk to clients and friends in the US. And this gives me amazing mobility - have made calls from airports, auto-rickshaws and cabs too ! No charge as well - except the data charges which are fairly nominal !!
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Hi Om and others,
A bit of a novice question from a newbie here.
I am planning to go to India next month. I can sign up for Vonage here in Canada, and also understand that you used Reliance G Tran card for Internet.
What else would I require and how would it actually work,
Thanks
Shri
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Ok, how do you set X ten lite up to work with Vonage?
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