Anyone use a WiFi enabled GSM phone?

I have VOIP at my work through Teliax (so I just use normal SIP phones).

I wanted to be able to have a phone that is my "real" office phone but be mobile with it. So I bought a couple of WiFi VOIP phones made by "UTStarCom". They were horrendous. They didn't support WPA as they claimed. They were almost impossible to get to connect to a network. They got hot as hell. They had about 45 minutes total talk/standby time, etc. Just bad.


So, I notice that many of the new Nokia phones have WiFi built in. They are also GSM... so it is my understanding that I could put the SIM card from my regular phone into it and it would work as a cell phone. And I could also set it up as a SIP phone through the WiFi connection and use it as a regular extension of my office phone system.

So I could be in Japan and get calls at my extension from people who called my work. And I could make internet phone calls from anywhere in the world which would be billed to my main phone account.

Anyone got one/use one?

 

There are several ways to do this. First, you have to install an app to get VOIP service to your cell phone. Then, you have to find a hot spot. I have the Zyxel VOIP phone. It works well, but you can't authenticate it if the Wi Fi service requires a login or cookies. For what you want to do, you may want to check out grandcentral.com. Also, check out broadbandforums.com. Lots of good info there. Hope this helps.

 

I use a Nokia E71. It is a great phone. I have a program called Fring that I use for AOL Instant Messenger. It also does VOIP. I don't use VOIP but that type of program may be what you need. The program is free.

 

powerpig, thanks for the info. I have VOIP @ work so I wanted a phone that will just let me connect as a SIP client to my existing hosted VOIP provider. Looks like it will do just that.

Ike, great comments - thank you! You are doing precisely what I want to do. I am going to order the E71 I think today... but before I do, can I ask you a few questions? Do you know if it supports WPA2, WPA and WEP? I bought a phone before that claimed to support WPA but didn't, and it would only connect when I made my network open w/no security! Does the E71 allow for WiFi "roaming" so it auto-connects @ home and will also connect to open networks while traveling, etc? Or do you have to manually make it connect in each area? Do you know if the SIP works over 3G data networks as well as over the Wifi? And when you use Fring (which I was probably going to use), does it let you be in standby mode so that clients can call your VOIP number? If you do that, how long of a battery life do you get? I know that's a concern with Wifi in mobile phones.

Any other comments on the phone? Do you like it overall? How is the Email support? It's symbian IIRC and I've never used that.

I want to be able to get/make calls from my "work" phone number when I am traveling and I want to be able to check/reply to email and keep in touch with MSN/AIM/ICQ contacts. I also want to have it work as a worldwide GSM phone so I can buy a local SIM card and get cheap in-country calls. The E71 sounds like it will do all of that perfectly.

 

I use FRING on my iPhone when I'm away from my wired VOIP phone and need SIP connectivity. It connects very nicely to our 3CX and runs on the iPhone's WiFi.

I'm actually in the market for something a bit more robust, but the FRING does work just fine in public hotspots and such.

 

I dont know what those things mean, wep wpa, etc.

I use opera mini over the stock browser, it will show what networks are available and what you want to connect to. Just like a pc. The phone also has this on the home screen, you tell it to search for wifi and it tells you all available. You can also define networks so it will always try that one if it is there. I love the phone, im posting with it now.

 

Good deal - thank you Ike!

 

My T-mobile BB Curve has wifi and I connected to my wireless router after entering the network name and WEP key. It switches automatically to wifi when I get in range (when I pull in the driveway usually) and phone calls are VOIP automatically. I have the option to pay an extra $10 a month for unlimited VOIP calling so it would make sense if I was at home or owned a business and made a lot of calls--especially long distance. I'm not sure if this is the info you were looking for, but hope that helps.

P.S. If you're on a call using wifi and leave your home, it automatically connects to a cell phone tower without your call being dropped.

 

Is that the Tmobile @home service?

 

Yeah, it's T-mobile@ Home service, but I think you can only use unlimited VOIP through that specific router you have setup with T-mobile and not be billed for long distance. Once you're off your own wifi network, even if you use other wifi networks, I think you start to use up your minutes. I don't know if you can use a wifi network in Hong Kong to call up somewhere in the US and not be billed. Maybe you can, but I haven't looked into it that much since I don't need it. I don't have a T-mobile router, but still use my regular Linksys router at home that my cell phone calls go through and the quality is better...clearer sounding. Faster internet connection with my BlackBerry of course as well.