Welcome to Thunderdome

Posted: **Fri Apr 13, 2007 1:07 am**

Upon much consideration and research, I think I might go with Skype. It looks like I can get the service I want for about $50 a year, and they have all the nifty wifi stuff you just described for Vonage, too. But at first I think I'll start with just a simple Linux server pushing through USB to my regular old cordless phone. Simple and cheap.

Posted: **Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:47 am**

TPRJones wrote:Uh oh ... is that likely?

EDIT: Holy crap ... okay, thanks for the heads up there. That sounds like a mess. Maybe cheaper isn't better.

When we left Vonage, they totally f'ed up the transfer process. For the next year, every time a Vonage person tried to call us, they got a fast busy, cuz Vonage thought we were still on their network, but couldn't find us.

Nice that they now claim to own your personal phone # too if you try to leave.

Posted: **Mon Jul 09, 2007 7:25 am**

TPRJones wrote:*Once upon a time I talked about building my own cellphone, but Catt couldn't find that post, so he quoted this one*

Open source GSM cellphone

Edited By TheCatt on 1183980369

Posted: **Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:27 am**

TheCatt wrote:
TPRJones wrote:*Once upon a time I talked about building my own cellphone, but Catt couldn't find that post, so he quoted this one*
Open source GSM cellphone

Fuck Apple, I think I know what I want for Christmas.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:43 am**

Another DIY cellphone kit, this one does Linux or Windows CE.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:56 am**

It's kind of odd to watch all these cell phone commercials on TV knowing that the industry will be extinct at some point.

I don't mean there won't be mobile phones, but the technology will be vastly different and I assume many of the big names companies will be long gone.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:25 am**

People said the same about media companies in the late 90's.

Companies often adapt to changes. I wouldn't be surprised if people are complaining about the same companies 20 years from now.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:27 am**

If the companies are smart, they wills pearhead the changes and make everyone else play catchup.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:51 am**

Hey TPR, make a phone already!

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:54 am**

Nice, but too expense in single quantities. Just the basics (screen, wifi, battery, GPRS) push the price over $600 for a single unit.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:08 am**

TPRJones wrote:Nice, but too expense in single quantities. Just the basics (screen, wifi, battery, GPRS) push the price over $600 for a single unit.

So figure out the economy of scale and get some big retailer on board.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:24 am**

Given their pricing scheme, you can get 'em decently loaded at about $250 a unit for 1000+ units.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:49 am**

You don't sell them one at a time unless you are cash rich and can blitz the malls coast to coast with retail outlets.... you sell them 1000 at a time at the big box stores.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:34 pm**

T-Mobile is advertising cell phones with Wi-Fi capability and AT&T dropped off a Blackberry for me to look at with Wi-Fi.

Companies often adapt to changes. I wouldn't be surprised if people are complaining about the same companies 20 years from now.

Like I said, some will try to adapt, but all will not survive. The problem for them is that the more cell phones and VoIP (Wi Fi) come together, the more monsters they have to face in the marketplace.

In the cell phone world, you have Verizon, AT&T (Cingular), Sprint, T-Mobile, AllTel, and...at least someone else I can't think of...

In the VoIP world, you have Cisco, Nortel, Avaya, and a shitload of little fish. The VoIP pond just got a new fish in the form of a little known company called Microsoft.

Now those cell phone companies are already seeing the writing on the wall and they're trying to do something about it, ala T-Mobile' ads about the Wi-Fi phone. Also, Verizon has been doing everything it can to move in new directions including as an ISP and such.

The problem for these cell companies is the VoIP guys are going to be offering their wares and "mobile phones" to businesses (that already have their VoIP) who will assign them to their employees basically wiping out half of the cell market.

Some will obviously survive like AT&T, maybe even Sprint, but others are going to have trouble.

I'll make a ballsy prediction (bookmark this) and say Verizon is one of the companies that disappears. I don't know if it'll be through folding or a buyout (most likely), but they have some serious issues going on. Yeah, they're most likely to be able to fight through it, but I think they're in more trouble than the public knows.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:06 pm**

VOIP is bad enough. I can only imagine how bad VOIP over WIFI will be.

Talk to me when they have QoS on the Internet.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:25 pm**

VOIP is bad enough. I can only imagine how bad VOIP over WIFI will be.

Where do you have it? At home? At Work?

We're looking to install a Cisco VoIP system next year and while I'm not concerned about the quality of the phone calls here in the building (should I be?), I am worried about the remote offices. We've got salespeople working out of their homes that will be using a cable/dsl connection to the VPN here, then using VoIP software to make calls here and elsewhere...those calls I worry about.

Talk to me when they have QoS on the Internet.

It will be an interesting race to watch. Who gets there first, WiFi & VoIP or 4th generation cell? Will it matter once the majority of businesses are on VoIP?

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:10 pm**

Both.

At home, it's acceptable. But certainly not as good as the traditional phone system.

At work, it's better, since we only use the VOIP portion in-house, and it terminates to standard landlines to go external. We only have one office, so I can't say anything about remote offices. People I've talked to with remote offices that use VOIP between them have been less than happy. We looked at using Cisco, and their stuff was crazy expensive. We ended up going with Mitel.

We have traders that work at home, and they all got an extra phone to take home, so it's the same hardware that they use at work. The phones have VPN capability built-in, so the traffic can route back to the office without exposing the servers as much. The problem is that people who have their own VOIP (Vonage, Road Runner, etc) and have tried to use the phones in addition have had some traffic issues. Mitel also offers a softphone (software on the computer), but we thought that the handset would perform better and be easier for people to use than the software.

I got a Linksys Wireless-N, Gigabit router with QoS to test out at my own house to see if that will perform better. I'm doing the testing this weekend so I'll let you know how that goes.

Posted: **Fri Oct 19, 2007 4:46 pm**

That's the main reason I've not gotten a cell phone yet, I expect Wifi phones to be better and cheaper in a few more years.

Well, that's not exactly true, I did finally buy a cell phone. For $20 I got a free phone and $25 worth of airtime with Virgin Mobile. Haven't given anyone the number yet, though.

Posted: **Sat Oct 20, 2007 1:29 am**

Rolled out a Cisco system about 4 years ago. About 120 phones at the HQ and two remote (T-1 frame relay) offices. We had no quality issues at either end. The remote sites even used the HQ voice mail server. You don't need much of a pipe. Less than 56k was enough for a single line. But again, that was over frame relay, not the Internet. You can run it off a single router now though, instead of the server we had to buy. Just installed another system over the last two months (router based). MAN did they make the rollout easier since 4 years ago. Built in paging, routers with more expansion slots, etc.

Catt, when you priced yours, was it router based, or did they sell you a CallManager server? Did it include voicemail?

Posted: **Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:52 am**

They wanted to sell us CallManager.

We needed to have voice recording in our system due to the traders. We also have CTI, voicemaill, conference calls, maybe some other features.

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VOIP Part 2