Skype has teamed with a number of hardware partners to bring WiFi Skype phones to market. The handsets enable wireless, PC-less Skype calls using business, home or free public WLAN access points.
The devices come with everything built-in to connect to Skype via personal, business, or free public WiFi access point that does not require browser authentication, and automatically synchronization to a Skype account and contacts. The devices support common WiFi encryption protocols including WEP, WPA, and WPA2 with PSK support.
The four WiFi phones announced today are the Belkin WiFi Phone for Skype (F1PP000GN-SK), Edge-Core WiFi Phone for Skype (WM4201), NETGEAR WiFi Phone for Skype (SPH101), and SMC WiFi Phone for Skype (WSKP100). The new Skype Certified WiFi phones will all be available this quarter, and will be sold directly from Skype online. Prices range from $179 to $300.
With one of these in the truck, I could take advantage of VOIP communications quality — and have dozens of excuses for yet another cup of coffee.
We don’t have anything like the wi-fi “cloud” already in the works for some cities and towns. Still, there’s lots of free wi-fi in local coffee shops, etc..
First look at these, especially the Belkin.
Sooner or later, they should be offered with a built-in video cam — and you’ll be able to do the whole videophone routine with VOIP quality instead of stuttering wireless.
Now, that would be trick!
No thanks. I’ll wait until someone reverse-engineers the Skype protocol and manages to keep up with attempts to lock them out again.
hey, how does this relate to the issue of guys getting arrested for “stealing” WiFi access?
Clue–WiFi access without authentication isn’t all that common in some cities. While many coffee houses in Albuquerque (where I live) have open access, many access points only allow access with authentication (example: Starbucks). I found this out recently in Indianapolis, where only Panera bread and pastry shops have free access, and there aren’t that many of them.
I found a list of 50 or so free wi-fi locations in Albuquerque, Floyd. I realize it seems easier to me up here [Santa Fe] in a town about 5% the size of Abq — with about half the number of free wi-fi hotspots.
Isn’t Rio Rancho free citywide, yet?
I’m sold, if it uses the same encryption Skype uses with computer to computer/phone calls. The fact that I can make a phone call that Big Brother is not (able to) listening in to, is reason enough.
Eideard: You and I are in towns with a lot of free WiFi access, as it’s considered a marketing tool to bring people in the business to (for instance) eat, drink coffee, and buy books. That isn’t the case everywhere.
In Indianapolis (my hometown, twice the population of Albuquerque), there are maybe a dozen deliberately free WiFi locations (as opposed to unconfigured private WiFi access points), and four of them are Panera stores. I don’t think the Indianapolis libraries (unlike Abq. and Las Vegas NV) have WiFi access points either, though I didn’t research enough to know for sure.
There are some hotels in Indy that have free WiFi for guests, but they’re not available to the public. Even the Panera access points must be accessed through a gateway website with an access agreement, and access is censored to a degree (no access to Playboy, for instance).
For such an enlightened bunch, you all can be so short-sighted…
First up, if you’re on the phone so often that you want ‘free’ access while you’re drinking coffee, or shopping at the bread store, you probably have enough minutes to just use the regular cell system. So, this is redundant and mostly useless — but oooooh, so whiz-bang!
Second, how upgradable is all this stuff? What about when WiMax spreads in urban areas? Is it compatible, or will we send another 20 million phones to the landfills?
Here’s a thought: how about taking some features off cell phones, and reducing their size and battery usage?
NEW WORD FOR THE DAY: Technosheep…
🙂
Al — and the word for you is “deaf” I guess. 🙂
Though I don’t need one of these — so, I won’t be getting one — have you ever listened to the sound quality difference between VOIP v. the best of digital cell phones v. POTS?
That was the primary reason I switched to VOIP at my home/office. VOIP trounces the competition.
I tried Skype with Windows mobile. I have a Verizon phone/PDA with EvDO access and downloaded Skype for Windows mobile. It worked, but the quality was awful. I then used Skype with an EvDO card on my laptop, and the quality was excellent, which is what I was used to with Skype. The bottom line is that there is Skype access available with a cell phone/PDA combination right now. It just needs a lot of work.