Voip on Mobile Phone

[barrowd]

I know this is probably a fairly basic question so bear with me, I want to get Voip on a mobile phone, I will be changing anyway so I can get the correct spec phone as needed.
As I am already a blueface customer, I was going to use blueface and fring as they seem have a deal going.
My questions are:
1) Will the Voip work outside of wifi spots, (i.e. like a normal mobile but without the costs)
2) What mobile phone operator will it work with,and
3) Can it work on a pay as you go system?
Thanks in advance..

[BFSGuru]

Originally Posted by barrowd

1) Will the Voip work outside of wifi spots, (i.e. like a normal mobile but without the costs).

Voip will work anywhere and everywhere, but if you are on a wi-fi spot, then the device will connect using its wi-fi antenna and will give you access to internet and voip, depending on that wi-fi provider if it is chargable or not like a prepaid time card for internet. It might even be free to air. Now if you are not anywhere near a wi-fi spot, then you can connect to internet and voip using the data plan with your mobile operator and you would have to contact your mobile operator for the cost towards it.

Originally Posted by barrowd

2) What mobile phone operator will it work with.

Any mobile operator that gives data plan and usage plan to enable users to access internet via the wi-fi enable mobile devices. Also you would have to check with them if you can use voip on the data plan they provide, because some mobile operators lets you use internet using the data plan but not voip.

Originally Posted by barrowd

3) Can it work on a pay as you go system?.

It will work on any system with us, be it a monthly plan or just a pay as you go account, you just need to make sure that you have credit in your pay as you go balance to enable you to make calls.

[tomfoley]

Just to add a bit of my experience from an end-user perspective.

Go get yourself a mobile phone that has WiFi capability. Choose what sort of a mobile calling plan you want to go with it, based on your own calling requirements. It doesn't matter what mobile provider (o2 etc.) you select, just as long as it's wifi as well as cellular capable.

When you configure the phone you choose which call routing type will be your default method, either WiFi or Cellular (Mobile). In my case I chose WiFi.

When making a call my phone will first attempt to use a wifi signal (my home router, hotspot etc.). If a connection is available then the call is routed to Blueface via the internet, and I am charged the Blueface price plan, i.e. pay as you go, national or whatever plan you chose).

If a WiFi signal is not available the call goes out in the traditional method to the local cell tower and I am charged the O2 price plan, pay as you go, national etc.).

If I had chosen Cellular as my default, then all my calls would go via O2 as I always have cellular signal, and wifi would never get a look in.

The above "switching" happens in the blink of an eye, so it's not in any way an inconvenience.

For individual calls you can override the defaults, or even turn wifi off entirely. So if you want you can take it off auto-pilot whenever it takes your whim.

Given that wifi calls are far cheaper than their mobile brethren, it's an absolute no-brainer to have it set-up as described above.

As BFSGuru points out it is indeed possible to route a VOIP (e.g. Blueface) call over the Cellular (e.g. O2) network, but it makes zero economic sense to do so, even if you had a data plan. You'd want an unlimited one, and that would turn out to be more expensive than mobile and voip combined!

I speak only of Ireland and the way it works here, the USA and other countries are a different story again, I refer only to today's reality in Ireland.

I'd love if someone could prove me wrong, but that's my experience at least. I used to pay my €25 line rental and €50 on a pay monthly mobile, often went over the limits on the mobile and had bills totalling €120 regularly. Now I'm talking more and have my costs down to €40 or less p.m. over all.

Happy calling!

[Guillaume]

Great thanks for your input Tom

[barrowd]

Thats exactly the info I was looking for, thanks to all. I was actually thinking of trying to replace the home phone, but that method wont work if it costs as much to use a data plan on the mobile. Back to the drawing board...

[tkblue]

TomFoley,

Any chance you could tell us what model mobile you are using ?

Also could you give more feedback on any call-drops.

It seems to me that the networks (who seem to have a monopoly on the retailing of mobile phones in Ireland) would not want people to have hotspot-VoIP capability on their cellphones.
Wouldn't it destroy their fat revenues ?

Supply of mobiles via the networks is also a blight in Ireland as regards getting a mobile phone with 2 sim cards in it, to enable calls to private and work numbers on the same phone . . . a type of phone that is readily available in Finland.

[jayz]

How do you use Blueface on mobile phone? Through Fring?

[Guillaume]

Hi,

I guess fring will be the best option, see : http://www.blueface.ie/fring/

[tomfoley]

Sorry I'm so late to respond to the thread, I Guess I just just missed it

Tkblue, when I wrote the message above I had an Nokia e61i but now I have a Nokia e71 in addition. They are more or less similar in functionality, although the e71 is speedier, more memory and some usability improvements. Either model has its own built-in SIP stack that will get you to BF from a hot spot, but they can also use Fring too. I use fring for the most part but sometimes switch to the native client as fring has trouble with DTMF tone generation. I think they're working on it.

As for call drops yep they happen, sometimes for no evident reason my wifi router signal dies for 5 mins and then comes back. I have no idea what's causing that. It could be the dead of night, one minute it's there, the next gone.

Regarding the mobile operators not wanting SIP/VOIP on mobiles you are absolutely right. In the early days (3-4 yrs ago), Voda for example shipped the e61i with the SIP firmware disabled. But thankfully that's no longer the case. I heard somewhere that Nokia were not happy having their name on crippled phones.

With the introduction of the iPhone and it's sip capabilities, there's life yet in mobile voip. The log on my (open) wifi router shows loads of passing iphone traffic as it is on a window close to the street.