Re: An observation about Apples claims on jamming

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jeff Porten <civitan () jeffporten com>
Date: August 2, 2009 10:04:58 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   An observation about Apples  claims on jamming

On Aug 1, 2009, at 5:14 PM, David Farber wrote:

> its perfectly clear if applications that enabled voice communication  
> using the 3g data path were allowed, carriers could loose $100MM or  
> more of revenue.

That's part of what's so unclear about the decision to block Google  
Voice -- this does *not* prevent VOIP calls.

For those of you without a GV account -- if you initiate a call from  
within GV, it rings through first on your selected phone, then  
connects you to the caller. (Essentially, initiating this call on the  
web creates an incoming call on both sides.) In the absence of a GV  
application, this can be done just as easily via Safari.

Meanwhile, GV has an option to send incoming calls to a Gizmo Project  
account (which provides a SIP number for free, and a paid option for a  
regular phone number). Gizmo in turn has an option to redirect those  
calls to a Skype account. Ergo, if you want to use GV for all of your  
calls -- free unlimited service within the US, exceedingly cheap rates  
elsewhere -- the infrastructure is still there to do this.

I'm not an iPhone owner, so I can't say how well this works in  
practice, but if the next generation iPod Touch has a built-in  
microphone (as rumored), I'll be trying this out -- which means that  
any time I'm in a wifi cloud, I have a cell phone with free service.  
On my Mac, Gizmo is generally reliable -- calls connect around 95% of  
the time (and almost always upon redial), with the worst problem being  
a slight audio lag. Combined with a cellular portable wifi point  
(i.e., the Mefi from Verizon, or cheaper options from MVNOs), this  
strikes me as the cheapest and most flexible way of getting most of  
the iPhone experience, as well as always-on connections for other  
devices.

Best,
Jeff Porten





-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com