Reception problems: T-Mobile was of NO help!!

[email protected] wrote in news:1169494508.811466.125120
@s34g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

> However, as soon as I drive halfway down the street I live in, I lose
> all reception.
>

I saw some activity on this thread, still, so would like to tell you a
solution that is working great for me. My reception on Alltel at home is
usable, as long as the phone isn't in my pocket or I'm in some rooms where
it drops out unless I'm holding it away from me. Your situation seems much
worse.

I have broadband in the house that runs 24/7/365 on cable internet. The
computers here run continuously, but that's not required, of late, as I've
bought a wifi Skype phone that connects to my router without a computer.
If you have broadband and run your computers when you're home, my solution
will work great for you, too.

My answer is Skype on either a Linksys CIT200 wireless Skype phone to your
computer's USB port...or...my new toyphone the Netgear Skype Phone that has
its own wifi transceiver and Skype-in-ROM all in a tiny handset.

Skype is so cheap it's obscene. Skype out for all of 2007, the whole year,
until Jan 30, 2007, is a heavy $15/YEAR. For your Skype to have its own
telephone number, anywhere in the USA you like, this will cost you
$28/YEAR, not per month. That's really cheap telephone service, no matter
what Skype's haters and detractors say. So, for $43/YEAR you get Skype out
and Skype in and Skype-to-Skype across the planet for free. You get
unlimited service from anywhere in the US and Canada TO anywhere in the US
and Canada with NO MINUTES charged against your Skype Out credit...even for
call forwarding, which brings me to my next point....

Instead of giving out my cellphone number and exposing it to spammers and
troublemakers, I give out my Skype In telephone number, now. Skype is
smarter than cellphone services. It KNOWS when your Skype is on or off as
it constantly talks to it. You can even change its contact status to many
options, like DO NOT DISTURB or NOT AVAILABLE. Skype also has call
forwarding and no-answer-transfer to any number you like...without minute
charges in the US/Canada for 2007, at least. Skype's incoming phone
numbers are all, in the US at least, in number blocks used by DATA
services, like those ISP dialup numbers for AOHell. Consequently, as an
added bonus, all the spammer databases have these number blocks locked out
of their autodialers! You never get a cold sales call to Skype In, at
least I never have had one in the year and a half I've been on Skype In.
No unsolicited calls come in as they think these numbers are all modems!...
(c;

Ok, the cellphone problem....is simple. Give everyone your Skype In phone
number and when you're home boot Skype on your computer, or use one of
these wireless Skype phones to answer calls at home off your own phone
system on Skype. Now, set Skype to no-answer-transfer to your cellphone
number. It's a simple option. You can actually tell Skype to try a whole
LIST of numbers until someone answers, not just one like cellular. Skype
will dial each number down the list until someone answers to take this
incoming call. Put your cellphone at the top of the list or just enter it,
alone, like mine. When you are Skype OFFLINE, Skype doesn't attempt to
ring a non-existant Skype...it simply refers the call, IMMEDIATELY, to the
forwarding number list, without waiting. Skype always knows you're status,
the minute you shut it down.

Everyone calls ONE number, Skype In. When you're home, Skype rings and you
talk ANYTIME without being charged some minute scheme from your cellphone.
When you're away, Skype is off (one click), and your cellphone rings like
it always does, instantly from the forwarded call. If you're not available
on your cell, the cell diverts the call to the cellphone voicemail and
notifies you, just like it does, now.

Call your landline company and cancel service you no longer need, saving
you WAY more money than a whole houseful of Skype phones will cost you next
year, ridding yourself of those damned spam calls during dinner. Call out
on Skype to any phone, cellphone or another Skype computer in USA, Virgin
Islands, Hawaii, Alaska (but not Guam)and Canada for $15/YEAR! Skype is in
tax-free Luxembourg. There are no taxes sucking on your tit off your
account...nada! You're already paying for broadband you're not using,
right? People who tell you Skype's quality sucks are trying to use it on
narrow band data circuits or dialup. That won't work. Skype sounds just
like your sitting in the room with them or on an analog landline with them
on any kind of broadband over 100Kbps. Even the little Netgear phone is
LOUD and sounds great.

Skype, unlike cellular, doesn't care how many Skypes you have running on
one account at once. In my house, at this moment, the main computer is
running Skype (with a headset), my laptop is running in my bedroom on Skype
to the USB 1950 Mhz base station of the Linksys CIT200 wireless candy bar
phone, plus the Netgear SPH101 in my pocket is hooked to Skype directly
through my Netgear wifi router...all on one account. They all ring like
landline phones throughout the house at once when there is a call. If
someone calls while I'm using Skype, the call instantly forwards to my
cellphone. If I don't answer or that's busy, they get cellphone
voicemail...(c;

NOW you'll have full scale signals in the house because YOU are your own
wifi hotspot!....(c; The little Netgear works several houses away and
anywhere in my yard or in my shop in my yard...in range of my wifi.

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.

---

› See More: Reception problems: T-Mobile was of NO help!!

At 25 Jan 2007 02:00:19 -0500 Larry wrote:

> Skype is so cheap it's obscene. Skype out for all of 2007, the whole
year,
> until Jan 30, 2007, is a heavy $15/YEAR. For your Skype to have its
own
> telephone number, anywhere in the USA you like, this will cost you
> $28/YEAR, not per month.

IIRC, it's 30 Euros, or about $40. Still inexpensive, of course.

> That's really cheap telephone service, no matter
> what Skype's haters and detractors say.

Most "Skype haters and detractors" I've seen hate (well, dislike) Skype
for it's proprietary protocols and codecs. SIP-compatible VoIP allows
you to use a variety of equipment solutions, most of which do not require
a PC (other than for initial setup) or a choice of softphone programs for
PCs, all of which will work on most other providers should you switch.

For Skype, you're stuck with Skype software or overpriced proprietary
peripherals like, well, your Wi-Fi phone. If Skype jacks up prices again
next year, you'll pay it, because you've already got a pretty good
investment in equipment. With SIP-compliant solutions you can change
providers at will; if my 1.3-cent/min provider doubles their rate, I'll
switch to my 1.6-cent provider.

I bought an unlocked SIP-compliant ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) on eBay
for $10 that allows me a choice of any of 100 VoIP providers (but not
Skype) and I can plug any old $10 cordless phone into it, and have VoIP
service even if I turn off the PC.

Admittedly, Skype is currently cheaper than the bulk of VoIP providers
(although the $15 unlimited is a limited-time come-on, and Skype has just
implemented a ridiculous 4-cent per call connection fee for anyone using
Skype pay-as-you-go. Smacks of desperation to me... I'm guessing eBay
hasn't seen the ROI they expected when they overpaid for Skype?)

Again, I'm not "hating" Skype- I use it occasionally for backup (but
begrudgingly,) because Skype's new Pocket PC software works MUCH better
on my very slow CPU PPC phone than any SIP-compliant software for PPC as
of yet. (Otherwise I'd just use one of my SIP accounts.)


> So, for $43/YEAR you get Skype out
> and Skype in

(~$55 for 2007. I doubt we'll see the $15/year again in 2008, but who
knows...) ;-)

> Ok, the cellphone problem....is simple. Give everyone your Skype In
phone
> number and when you're home boot Skype on your computer, or use one of
> these wireless Skype phones to answer calls at home off your own phone
> system on Skype.


The OP has already said he has Skype at home. My suggestion was similar,
but I said it the other way around, since all of his friends already have
his cell #. I suggested he forward the cell to Skype if unavailable. T-
Mo allows up to 500 minutes of conditional call forwarding a month at no
charge.

If he doesn't have a Skype-In number, he can get a free number and free
incoming calls from Voicestick and just run two softphones on his PC,
using Voicestick for free incoming calls and Skype for unlimited outgoing.

> Everyone calls ONE number, Skype In. When you're home, Skype rings and
you
> talk ANYTIME without being charged some minute scheme from your
cellphone.

That's fine too, but it makes him dependent on Skype-in, and as Skype has
shown us in the little time 2007 has been around, that they are following
the "heroin" marketing method- hook you on cheap service and then up the
price. The OP is obviously dependent on his cell already- let's spare
him another vice!

> Call your landline company and cancel service you no longer need,
saving
> you WAY more money than a whole houseful of Skype phones will cost you
next
> year

Except, IIRC, the OP doesn't have landline service, having already
replaced it with cellular (else no cell reception at home would hardly be
a crisis!)

> Skype is in
> tax-free Luxembourg. There are no taxes sucking on your tit off your
> account...nada!

Just a 4-cent connection fee for all pay-as-you-go calls. Maybe that's
eBay's cut of the take before the money heads to Luxembourg? ;-)

While I'm not big on VoIP as landline replacement, I think you're on the
right track here for the OP. Skype will make a cheap backup for his
mobile phone until T-Mo can hopefully get service to his street.

In article <[email protected]>, Larry wrote:

> I saw some activity on this thread, still, so would like to tell you a
> solution that is working great for me.

Yes. It sucks that stuff like this has to be done, but this is a good
solution for those that need it.

You don't need to use Skype. You can use any service that allows call
forwarding. However, the basic concept works.

It'll be interesting to see how well T-Mo' new hybrid Wifi/GSM phones work.


--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

Todd Allcock <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Most "Skype haters and detractors" I've seen hate (well, dislike)
> Skype for it's proprietary protocols and codecs. SIP-compatible VoIP
> allows you to use a variety of equipment solutions, most of which do
> not require a PC (other than for initial setup) or a choice of
> softphone programs for PCs, all of which will work on most other
> providers should you switch.

That's all fine, except if you're using a generic VoIP client you end up
with "just a phone" on a computer, without the really neat stuff Skype
keeps upgrading to like Skypecasts and its great messaging/file transfer
windows. I can't argue about "proprietary" when they are giving you
proprietary with support for FREE.

I'd be interested to see these "equipment solutions" you have. Is there
a wifi/cellular combo phone solution, or is this about a VoIP central
office solution for a corporation with a 40 story building? Little guys
like me have no need for big commercial VoIP solutions, which is why
there are millions of Skype users across the planet online as I type.

>
> For Skype, you're stuck with Skype software or overpriced proprietary
> peripherals like, well, your Wi-Fi phone. If Skype jacks up prices
> again next year, you'll pay it, because you've already got a pretty
> good investment in equipment. With SIP-compliant solutions you can
> change providers at will; if my 1.3-cent/min provider doubles their
> rate, I'll switch to my 1.6-cent provider.

Show me the cheap VoIP wifi direct portable phones....I'm not married to
Skype in any way. I need a portable wifi phone for less than $169
connected to a service for less than $40/year, including its own POTS
in/out access and its own number.
>
> I bought an unlocked SIP-compliant ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) on
> eBay for $10 that allows me a choice of any of 100 VoIP providers (but
> not Skype) and I can plug any old $10 cordless phone into it, and have
> VoIP service even if I turn off the PC.

What service do you use that's cheaper than Skype? I don't need to run a
computer, now, to use Skype on the Netgear SPH101. I'm open to your
suggestion, but just saying you have SIP-compliant $10 adapters tells me
the reason they're so cheap on Ebay is noone wants them because of COST
to use them.
>
> Admittedly, Skype is currently cheaper than the bulk of VoIP providers
> (although the $15 unlimited is a limited-time come-on, and Skype has
> just implemented a ridiculous 4-cent per call connection fee for
> anyone using Skype pay-as-you-go. Smacks of desperation to me... I'm
> guessing eBay hasn't seen the ROI they expected when they overpaid for
> Skype?)

Someone has to pay for the interconnects. 4c/call of infinite length,
unless you are constantly calling out, with no other bogus charges,
relates to 750 phone calls a month, of infinite length, compared to a
landline who's total bill is $30. That's a LOT of phone calls for the
average human, who is not a teenaged girl on hormones. Unlike the
landline, if you make 100 phone calls next month, your phone bill on
Skype is $4, not $30 or $40 or $50. 4c/call is really cheap. Skype
calls are still free. You're only paying for POTS interconnect. I don't
see how it will ever make a profit, but Ebay's interest is connecting its
sellers, where its real money is, to its buyers who fund Ebay's bottom
line. I'm not sure they care if Skype does more than just break even.

>
> Again, I'm not "hating" Skype- I use it occasionally for backup (but
> begrudgingly,) because Skype's new Pocket PC software works MUCH
> better on my very slow CPU PPC phone than any SIP-compliant software
> for PPC as of yet. (Otherwise I'd just use one of my SIP accounts.)
>
I bought a Dell Axim x51v and Skype for Mobile worked great on it...if
you could keep the damned Windows Mobile 5.x from crashing itself.
Rebooting 8 times a day on a PDA isn't acceptable. I told the Indians at
Dell TS they put the RESTART button on the wrong side. The laptop-like
battery run time was also just not acceptable. The damned thing was
always dead if you left Skype running so you could use it. The Netgear
Skype phone suffers from battery-itis unless you turn it off while
there's no wifi for it to connect to. At home, it gives battery life
like is advertised. Wifi phones will never get the days a cellphone gets
out of a charge because of the constant broadcasting wifi does talking to
its AP....Skype or not.

I returned the defective WM5 x51v to Dell after 10 frustrating days for a
full refund and went back to my old Palm PDA which hasn't crashed in
years and runs a week on a charge (old Visor Edge). The Palm syncs
better, anyways, just pushing the button. PDA cellphones are useless
with all the carriers trying to screw the users by hobbling up the
features to sell them something, making them unacceptable to me.


> The OP has already said he has Skype at home. My suggestion was
> similar, but I said it the other way around, since all of his friends
> already have his cell #. I suggested he forward the cell to Skype if
> unavailable. T- Mo allows up to 500 minutes of conditional call
> forwarding a month at no charge.

My method does away with the forwarded minute charges, which is why I did
it. Skype is also much more reliable at DELIVERING a call than cellular
is at forwarding the call because of Skype's distributed processing which
I've never seen showing signs of overloading. Unlike cellular, Skype
doesn't summarily dump a call to voicemail because a tower sector you're
on is overloaded, then voicemail prompt you when a channel frees up.

>
> That's fine too, but it makes him dependent on Skype-in, and as Skype
> has shown us in the little time 2007 has been around, that they are
> following the "heroin" marketing method- hook you on cheap service and
> then up the price. The OP is obviously dependent on his cell already-
> let's spare him another vice!

None of us are hooked. I guess I could lose $200 if I dumped Skype
because I keep buying these little toys for it, but many of my toys cost
much more. As I said, Ebay's interest is connecting its sellers and
buyers on Skype, not turning huge cellular phone profits like Verizon, so
I think you'll see 2008 look pretty much like 2007 UNLESS the
interconnection costs rise above what Ebay is paying now. I just can't
believe I can buy a phone number and interconnect to it (Skype In) for
$28/year in 2007 with my useless dollars.

> Just a 4-cent connection fee for all pay-as-you-go calls. Maybe
> that's eBay's cut of the take before the money heads to Luxembourg?
> ;-)

He still has 6 days to spend the princely sum of $15 for a whole year of
unlimited Skype Out. You keep harping on 4c/call. Geez, man, that's 3
outgoing, unlimited calls to any phone number in the USA and Canada as
long as I want to talk for ONE THIRD the price of a goddamned SMS message
of 156 characters to his goddamned cellphone! 4c/call has my vote RIGHT
NOW! Divide your TOTAL cellphone bill by your minutes and see what that
costs you to use!
>
> While I'm not big on VoIP as landline replacement, I think you're on
> the right track here for the OP. Skype will make a cheap backup for
> his mobile phone until T-Mo can hopefully get service to his street.
>
Best deal for a home phone I've found....(c;

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.

At 25 Jan 2007 15:12:47 +0000 Steven J. Sobol wrote:

> Yes. It sucks that stuff like this has to be done, but this is a good
> solution for those that need it.
>
> You don't need to use Skype. You can use any service that allows call
> forwarding. However, the basic concept works.
>
> It'll be interesting to see how well T-Mo' new hybrid Wifi/GSM phones
work.

IMHO, it won't matter how wellthey work if they stick to thier $20/month
extra plan for Wi-Fi use! ;-) AFAIK, the Wi-Fi portion is locked to
their "@ Home" service and can't be configured for other, cheaper, VoIP
providers.

At 25 Jan 2007 10:19:57 -0500 Larry wrote:

> That's all fine, except if you're using a generic VoIP client you end
up
> with "just a phone" on a computer, without the really neat stuff Skype
> keeps upgrading to like Skypecasts and its great messaging/file
transfer
> windows.

True. "Standard" VoIP is "just a phone" for the most part (but most
providers offer extra features- fax to e-mail, conference calling, etc.
One provider I use even has a "bridge" feature- I can call my VoIP number
from my cell and get a dialtone that lets me dial internationally at VoIP
rates. Unlike with Skype it's a provider-based solution- no software
needs to run on my PC or cellphone to enable this.)

> I can't argue about "proprietary" when they are giving you
> proprietary with support for FREE.

I'm talking about HARDWARE. Those $150 Wi-Fi phones for example, that
only work with Skype, and none of the other hundreds of VoIPs that can
use interchangable hardware.

>
> I'd be interested to see these "equipment solutions" you have.

It's a box that plugs into a spare port on my router. It has a phone
jack to plug my phone (or house wiring if I prefer to use every phone on
VoIP) into. $10 on eBay, but $30-80 new depending on options.

> Is there
> a wifi/cellular combo phone solution,

No, you plug any $10-20 cordless POTS phone into your $30 VoIP ATA. It
then works like your cordless Skype phone, at least at home, but with a
longer battery life! ;-).

> or is this about a VoIP central
> office solution for a corporation with a 40 story building?

It's about a little box that plugs into your router. Jeez, why are you
making this so tough! It's like Skype, but without the PC or $150 Wi-Fi
phone being needed! The ATA connects to the internet directly without
any "software" since (non-Skype) VoIP is a standard protocol.

> Little guys
> like me have no need for big commercial VoIP solutions, which is why
> there are millions of Skype users across the planet online as I type.

Yes, there are. Skype has it's uses, but landline telephony replacement
isn't one of them, IMHO. For free Skype-to-Skype it's great, but
compared to other VoIPs, their international rates are a little high.
The unlimited Skype-Out to US/Canada is unbeatable right now, however.


> Show me the cheap VoIP wifi direct portable phones....I'm not married
to
> Skype in any way. I need a portable wifi phone for less than $169
> connected to a service for less than $40/year, including its own POTS
> in/out access and its own number.


There are no "direct Wi-Fi portable phones" for SIP, AFAIK. You just use
any old cordless or wired phone on your ATA.


> What service do you use that's cheaper than Skype?

For unlimited domestic outgoing use, none- Skype-Out at $14.95 is the
reigning champ. For international there's Voicestick, Stanaphone and
CallWithUs- all cheaper than Skype- just off the top of my head. For
incoming calls, Voicestick and Stana are free, (Voicestick lets you pick
any of hundreds of area codes, while Stana limits you to their NY-based
A/C) and CallWithUs is as cheap as Skype-In depending on the area code or
number you select.

> I don't need to run a
> computer, now, to use Skype on the Netgear SPH101.

No, just a $150 SPH101 and a wireless network. At home, you don't even
need wireless with an ATA- just plug it in to an ethernet port on your
router and plug in a POTS phone.

> I'm open to your
> suggestion, but just saying you have SIP-compliant $10 adapters tells
me
> the reason they're so cheap on Ebay is noone wants them because of COST
> to use them.

No, I just got lucky- a company was dumping 30 of them after upgrading
to a more featured VoIP system. Brand new it was only a $30 model (very
low end- only supports one account at a time. Nicer, pricier adapters
can work with up to 3 accounts at once, so you can use provider A for the
cheapest calls to Paraguay, B for lower rates to Uzbeckistan, and C for
free incoming, for example, all from the same POTS telephone.)


> Someone has to pay for the interconnects. 4c/call of infinite length,
> unless you are constantly calling out, with no other bogus charges,
> relates to 750 phone calls a month, of infinite length, compared to a
> landline who's total bill is $30. That's a LOT of phone calls for the
> average human, who is not a teenaged girl on hormones.

But on the pay-go plan they already get their per-minute rate. Why do
they need an extra 4-cents to connect the call? No other VoIP does this,
and many have lower per-min rates to begin with. This is just a ploy to
scare casual users into taking the unlimited plan instead of just using
pay-go.

I looked over my Skype usage last year when it was free, and I only used
about 200 minutes total! Or, roughly $4 worth, maybe $5 with connection
fees.

Some VoIPs offer US/Canada (and many international destinations like the
UK) for as low as 1.3-cents a minute, and no "connection fees."

> I bought a Dell Axim x51v and Skype for Mobile worked great on it...if
> you could keep the damned Windows Mobile 5.x from crashing itself.
> Rebooting 8 times a day on a PDA isn't acceptable.

I know you don't want to believe this, but your Dell was defective. Sure
WinMo-based devices can be touchy, but you problems were simply not normal.

My PPC phone crashes very infrequently, and it has less memory, a slower
processor and more hardware to manage than a non-phone PPC like the X51.


> PDA cellphones are useless
> with all the carriers trying to screw the users by hobbling up the
> features to sell them something, making them unacceptable to me.

No PPC phone I've ever seen has been "hobbled"- even the Verizon WM5-
based 6700 allows modem connections and file-transfer over BT- features
crippled on most Verizon phones. The GSM PDA phones from Cingular and T-
Mo aren't crippled at all either. Having cellular and VoIP for backup or
international calling in one device is very nice, but the battery life
wouldn't support constant VoIP use due to the demands of the Wi-Fi radio.


> My method does away with the forwarded minute charges, which is why I
> did it.

You method also puts all of the OP's voicemail on the cell, which is
probably better than my method, which would direct all unanswered calls,
and, therefore, all VM, to Skype.


> He still has 6 days to spend the princely sum of $15 for a whole year
> of
> unlimited Skype Out. You keep harping on 4c/call. Geez, man, that's 3
> outgoing, unlimited calls to any phone number in the USA and Canada as
> long as I want to talk for ONE THIRD the price of a goddamned SMS
> message
> of 156 characters to his goddamned cellphone! 4c/call has my vote
> RIGHT NOW!

Again, I'm harping whenever Skype does something proprietary or something
others don't.

You hype Skype because it's cheaper than a landline. Which is true, of
course. My point is that's not a 100% fair comparison- Skype needs to be
compared to other VoIPs, since they're ALL cheaper than landlines! It's
like hyping a pocket calculator because it's cheaper than a PC- you need
to compare it to other calculators. Admttedly, Skype wins hands down on
the unlimited US/Canada calling, but again, their international rates are
highe, and their proprietary protocalls make you too reliant on a PC (I
realize you have the Wi-Fi phone, but low battery life and lack of
features compared to what Skype is capable of on a PC makes Skype PC-
reliant.)

> Divide your TOTAL cellphone bill by your minutes and see what
>that costs you to use!

Again, that's an unfair comparison- with cellular I'm paying for the
infrastructure costs of their ubiquitous network, compared to VoIP where
the infrastructure is already there (the internet) and it's costs borne
by others. If I want a phone that works "anywhere," as opposed to just
at home, bookstores and Starbucks, I need a cellular phone. But to
answer your question, I use about 600 minutes a month at $50 including
taxes, so about 8-cents/minute, (plus I use a several dozen MB of data on
my $5 unlimited e-mail/data plan which is also included in the $50/month.)


> Best deal for a home phone I've found....(c;

Perhaps, but other VoIPs are more suitable for landline replacement since
they can handle 911 calls (which unfortunately adds to their cost.
Voicestick, for example, claims their free incoming numbers cost them $2-
5/month, depending on usage, in termination fees, number "rental" and E-
911 costs.)

Again, I like Skype just fine for what it is. If they added SIP/ATA
support they'd rule the industry instead of the big guys like Vonage,
but, like AOL, I think they've chosen to leverage their incompatibility
as part of their business plan, by cutting deals with folks like Netgear
to sell proprietary devices. Personally, I'd rather pay Skype $100 a
year for unlimited in/out instead of $50 if they supported 911 calling
and ATAs allowing me to use POTS phones plugged anywhere in the house as
well as their PC/PPC softphones.

In article <[email protected]>, Larry wrote:

> That's all fine, except if you're using a generic VoIP client you end up
> with "just a phone" on a computer, without the really neat stuff Skype
> keeps upgrading to like Skypecasts and its great messaging/file transfer
> windows. I can't argue about "proprietary" when they are giving you
> proprietary with support for FREE.

Nor can I argue. Furthermore, if Skype has what you need, then you
should use it. If you require standards-based communications, don't
use Skype.

> I'd be interested to see these "equipment solutions" you have. Is there
> a wifi/cellular combo phone solution, or is this about a VoIP central
> office solution for a corporation with a 40 story building?

T-Mo is getting ready to do Wifi/GSM hybrids. But VoIP doesn't
necessarily mean a big server and tons of features you don't need. It
could mean a SIP-compatible service hosted by someone else too.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

"Steven J. Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> It'll be interesting to see how well T-Mo' new hybrid Wifi/GSM phones
> work.
>
>

At our main Alltel store, I figured out how to boot some of the CDMA/wifi
phones into wifi and connected them to Quizno's free wifi right next to
the Alltel store.

Then, having asked the pretty girl how fast her Alltel 1X PDA was,
previously at her desk, I motioned her over to the demo area and said, "I
thought you said these weren't too fast?" The look on her face when CNN
popped up instantly and the NOAA weather national map, though too small
to make out the labels, just downloaded in an instant was PRICELESS...(c;

I showed her how to put her phone into wifi on Quizno's wifi, but I made
her promise me she wouldn't use this cheating to sell a PDA phone on
Alltel, no matter what her commission....(d^ I can connect to three
freebie wifi's from the Alltel main store with really fast internet
without the bogus charges...(c; Alltel doesn't hobble them all up like
you-know-who with the heroin addict in glasses walking around in the heat
with his jacket on to cover up the tracks, saying, "Can you hear me now?"

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.

Todd Allcock <[email protected]> wrote in news:epaus2$2ei$3
@aioe.org:

> True. "Standard" VoIP is "just a phone" for the most part (but most
> providers offer extra features- fax to e-mail, conference calling, etc.
> One provider I use even has a "bridge" feature- I can call my VoIP
number
> from my cell and get a dialtone that lets me dial internationally at
VoIP
> rates. Unlike with Skype it's a provider-based solution- no software
> needs to run on my PC or cellphone to enable this.)
>
>

Have you played with Vox for Skype? http://www.voxlib.com/

It's from Canada and is a really neat application. It allows you to use
Skype by remote control from any cellphone or landline phone, bypassing
the bull**** long distance charges overseas, for instance. I can call my
Skype friends on Skype-to-Skype from my cellphone away from the house and
just use airtime, unless we're on unlimited N/W. Customers, like
Nextels, with free incoming calls do even better. They can send Vox an
SMS message to their Skype In number with command instructions on who to
dial or call on Skype. Vox makes the call, then calls their Nextel, a
free incoming call, and bingo!...you're connected to your party in the
middle of the day for FREE! No airtime charges, no funny business. Vox
is cool....read about it on the webpage. Vox is still free, so far....

Skype gets more 3rd party applications like Vox all the time. There's an
addon webpage that lists them on Skype.com....

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.

"Steven J. Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> T-Mo is getting ready to do Wifi/GSM hybrids. But VoIP doesn't
> necessarily mean a big server and tons of features you don't need. It
> could mean a SIP-compatible service hosted by someone else too.
>

True...but when those features are provided for free, it's pretty hard to
object to anything "you don't need". You simply ignore it.

It will be interesting to see how well Skype works on T-Mo's wifi. Skype
works great on a so-called "broadband" aircard on Verizon or Alltel,
now....unless Verizon finds out about it...(c;

Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.

In article <[email protected]>, Larry wrote:
> "Steven J. Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
>> T-Mo is getting ready to do Wifi/GSM hybrids. But VoIP doesn't
>> necessarily mean a big server and tons of features you don't need. It
>> could mean a SIP-compatible service hosted by someone else too.
>
> True...but when those features are provided for free, it's pretty hard to
> object to anything "you don't need". You simply ignore it.

That wasn't in reference to Skype, it was in reference to your comment
about enterprise-grade VoIP. There is a middle ground.

You and I actually seem to agree 100% about this.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

At 25 Jan 2007 16:33:37 -0500 Larry wrote:

> It will be interesting to see how well Skype works on T-Mo's wifi.

T-Mo's Wi-Fi phones won't work with Skype- they are harwired for T-Mo's
"@ Home" VoIP service. With @ Home, you use your own broadband service-
T-Mo just gives you a VoIP Wi-Fi router to connect the phone to.

> Skype
> works great on a so-called "broadband" aircard on Verizon or Alltel,
> now....unless Verizon finds out about it...(c;

Again, T-Mo isn't providing the internet service- it's "bring your own."

"Steven J. Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> You and I actually seem to agree 100% about this.
>

Wow...That'll set back cellular newsgroups for months!...hee hee...



Larry
--
Democracy is when two wolves and a sheep vote on who's for dinner.
Liberty is when the sheep has his own gun.

In article <[email protected]>, Larry wrote:

>> You and I actually seem to agree 100% about this.

> Wow...That'll set back cellular newsgroups for months!...hee hee...

It's certainly not as much fun when I'm yelling at you because you're
wrong. :>

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

On 2007-01-25, Larry <[email protected]> wrote:
> Skype is so cheap it's obscene. Skype out for all of 2007, the whole year,
> until Jan 30, 2007, is a heavy $15/YEAR. For your Skype to have its own
> telephone number, anywhere in the USA you like, this will cost you
> $28/YEAR, not per month. That's really cheap telephone service, no matter
> what Skype's haters and detractors say. So, for $43/YEAR you get Skype out
> and Skype in and Skype-to-Skype across the planet for free. You get
> unlimited service from anywhere in the US and Canada TO anywhere in the US
> and Canada with NO MINUTES charged against your Skype Out credit...even for
> call forwarding, which brings me to my next point....

This is wrong in a couple of ways. A SkypeIn number is not $28/year,
it is $38/year or $12 for 3 months. Call forwarding is not covered by
the $15/year ($30/year after January 31) USA/Canada SkypeOut unlimited
plan; even if you have the plan forwarded calls are charged at 2.1 cents/min
plus the 3.9 cent "connection charge" which you pay even on calls where
you hang up after 10 seconds due to quality problems.

So after Wednesday this plan will cost you $68/year plus the cost of
forwarded calls. This may still seem okay, but note that before
January 1 this same service was $38/year and included forwarded calls.
The trend in pricing is certainly clear.

> Instead of giving out my cellphone number and exposing it to spammers and
> troublemakers, I give out my Skype In telephone number, now. Skype is
> smarter than cellphone services. It KNOWS when your Skype is on or off as
> it constantly talks to it. You can even change its contact status to many
> options, like DO NOT DISTURB or NOT AVAILABLE. Skype also has call
> forwarding and no-answer-transfer to any number you like...without minute
> charges in the US/Canada for 2007, at least.

You abviously either don't get many calls this way, or don't check your
account very often, since if you did you'd know you'd been paying for
call forwarding since January 1. It's in the fine print of the terms
for the unlimited calling plan.

In addition to this increase, Skype added that 3.9 cent/minute
connection charge to each charged call on January 18. I originally
thought this wouldn't be a big deal since I tend to use Skype for
what I thought were long overseas calls, but it turns out that real
calls end up in voice mail sometimes, or people are busy, or you call
businesses that you really don't want to spend a long time talking to,
so it is hard to avoid making a lot of short calls. Analizing my
last 6 months of calling showed that the 3.9 cent/minute connect charge
would increase my actual per-call charges by about 20% over which they were
on January 17, which had already increased due to the imposition of
per minute charges on forwarded calls as of January 1. I still wouldn't
call Skype expensive, but there is a clear trend going on here.

More than this, a lot of Skype's overseas rates are not cheap at all.
My Cingular cell phone, of all things, is competitive with Skype for
calling European mobile phones, and is better than Skype in many cases
for calling Caribbean and Latin American countries. Skype even has some
pricing gotcha's in there; phoning an Australian non-geographic shared-cost
number costs the same as phoning a landline in Australia and on my
Cingular phone, but costs 25 cents per minute (compared to 2.1 cents
for landlines) with Skype.

And, while I can't complain too much about Skype's quality in general,
its reliability leaves something to be desired. I have three SkypeIn
numbers in three countries which I rely on for a few things, and which
I find a need to call fairly regularly to ensure they are still working.
I've caught 3 problems this way in the last 6 months, and my callers
sometimes complain about problems I've not noticed. And overseas
Skypeout is a little bit of a crap shoot; usually the quality is
exceptionally good, but occasionally you get a bad line or echo and
need to call back, with the cost of that failed call increased by
as much as 200% since January 18. And I pay for the failures even
on incoming calls when the call is forwarded.

I still don't mind Skype but it is not nearly as good a deal as it
once was (this call forwarding thing you are advocating can actually
be quite pricy). I'll stick with it for now, but I'm only doing
3 month extensions on the SkypeIn numbers and I'll move to another
service as soon as I find one with the right set of features.

Dennis Ferguson