Phoning Over Wi-Fi Getting Easier

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Phoning Over Wi-Fi Getting Easier  By Elisa Batista

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,59129,00.html
02:00 AM Jun. 06, 2003 PT
When Jason Johnson, a publicist in Mountain View, California, travels to
Tokyo for business, he rarely pays more than five cents a minute to call
home. 
Rather than rely on the hotel's phone or a cell phone that offers worldwide
roaming, Johnson hops onto a Wi-Fi network and phones home from his laptop
instead. A piece of software in the laptop lets him connect to his office
network in Mountain View and make phone calls at the local long-distance
rate as if he were calling from there.
"The voice quality is as good as traditional cellular phones and in some
cases can actually be better," Johnson said.
The so-called "voice over Wi-Fi" service -- which Johnson's company, VLI,
offers -- is not ubiquitous today. But it is a breakthrough that could roil
the cell-phone business, some analysts say.
Most recently, Palm (PALM) revealed it would support VLI's software on its
Tungsten C handheld. While voice over Wi-Fi has been available for some time
in certain hospitals, schools, airports and factories, this is the first
time a company is offering it to consumers in an off-the-shelf product.
"You are just starting to see Wi-Fi integrated in handhelds," said Sam
Bhavnani, an analyst at market intelligence company ARS. "Soon, we will see
them integrated in handsets."
The advantages of making a call on a Wi-Fi phone rather than a cellular
handset are obvious: "It's free," Bhavnani said.
Well, not quite free.
If Wi-Fi service were ubiquitous and free -- as some cities, including
Milwaukee, plan to offer -- making a call would be free to anyone with Wi-Fi
handsets. 
In order to make phone calls over a Wi-Fi network somewhere besides
Milwaukee, a person would have to download a piece of software onto the
Wi-Fi-enabled device. VLI, for example, charges $10 a year to download its
Gphone buddy-service software and users can make free phone calls to someone
else who uses the same software.
Businesses can purchase network equipment and software that will let their
employees, like Johnson, tap into the company's phone network and make phone
calls anywhere at the local long distance rate. If the calls were made to
other Wi-Fi networks, they would be free, aside from any software and ISP
costs.
The hindrance to wide adoption is that the devices don't exist to integrate
the hardware with the required software. In addition to a Wi-Fi chipset to
receive the signals, devices would need software to be able to handle voice.
While some of the software can be downloaded and installed, Bhavnani says
there are no devices that work "out of the box."
"Wi-Fi today -- the reason people don't use it is because it is not easy to
figure out," Bhavnani said. "You take a notebook into Starbucks and it takes
some time for the process to work. It is not seamless."
Now imagine the learning curve to get voice over Wi-Fi to work.
Still, with the relative high price of cell-phone bills, more people are
likely to go to the trouble of configuring a device in order to lower their
bills, analysts said. That could spell trouble in the long run for
mobile-phone service providers.
VLI's Johnson was careful not to tout his company's service as an
alternative to cell-phone service.
"Ideally you would have a device that will get on both the Wi-Fi networks
and cellular networks," he said. "When I am out in the Midwest, I still get
cellular coverage. But when I am in my office, which is in the middle of
this rigid, steel building where my Sprint PCS service doesn't work, I would
then use the Wi-Fi coverage."


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