(Reg required) NYT has a piece on WiFi handsets, which is pretty comprehensive. There’s a number of plans mentioned, including one from Earthlink which is pitched as being a fifth of the price of traditional cellphone service…”EarthLink plans to sell phones for $50 to $100, then charge roughly $25 a month for unlimited calling. Initially, the service will work only with hotspots where Internet access is provided by EarthLink, either in homes or on its citywide networks.”
At first I wondered why a wireless VoIP company would want to restrict service to their own hotspots — wouldn’t it be better for their customers to pay them a flat fee and use other people’s bandwidth? But later concerns are raised such as carriers getting blamed for poor WiFi service and the difficulties of having to connect to every WiFi spot you come across.
“Skype, the Internet calling service owned by eBay, said last week that four manufacturers plan to begin shipping Wi-Fi phones that are compatible with the service by the end of September. Among them is Netgear, a maker of networking equipment, which plans to charge $300 for its phone; the other makers include Belkin, Edge-Core and SMC.”
There’s also the issue of handset subsidies…people are very used to them by now and it’s hard to convince the majority of people of the value of paying full price for a handset.
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