First Free Mobile-to-Mobile Cross-Platform Calls

bombduck writes "Barablu demonstrates free calling from Nokia Series 60 based phones to Windows Mobile phones and PDAs using a Wi-Fi connection. Both Nokia E Series and N Series Wi-Fi enabled phones tested, showing not only Voice but IM, video and conference calling. "

Doesn't mention if you can block IMing though..

[Channard]

I wonder how long - if this takes off - it'll take for someone to set up a program on their device to auto-IM spam anyone it can connect to.

Re:Doesn't mention if you can block IMing though..

[British]

But you see, this provides a new innovation in anti-spam technology. If they are in wifi range, thay are within hulk-smash range too. A self-solving problem.

So what

[DJProtoss]

SIP clients are availiable for both the platforms used and will happily communicate with each other. (in fact, since the E-series has sip built in, I wouldn't be surprised if this is simply built on top of it).
from the article:

"It is the first service to bring Instant Messaging directly to a mobile phone."

Really? so the copy of messenger that is built into recent wm2k* based phones, and the aim and jabber clients I have don't count then? pah.

Countdown....

[DrYak]

Countdown to SIP and H323 over WiFi ability of modern phones being locked down / arbitrarly over charged by american phone service providers :

3... 2... 1...

A nice idea, but...

[solevita]

Free calls within WiFi range? I might as well just get up and go talk face to face. Hell, WiFi range is pretty close to "shouting range" anyway, why leave my seat?

Re:

[MaceyHW]

TFA is a press release and is pretty confusing, but it seems that the product is a skype-like client for Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices. You can make free "in-network" calls and cheap "out-of-network calls" over Wi-Fi.

More importantly, if you can't (or won't) write a press release that clearly conveys what your product does, what is the chance I want to use it?

Incoming Video Call

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi--sorry to bug you at Starbucks like this. You don't know me. I'm in the bathroom. Can you tell me - does this look infected to you? It feels infected...

Re:

[Pollardito]

how about "i'm in the next stall and there's no toilet paper, can you spare a square?"

can other wi-fi stuff play?

[paganizer]

can other Wi-Fi stuff play, like palms/PDA's, gameboys, PSP's, and the latest crop of consoles? from the Website [nyud.net] it looks like they only support PC, Pocket-PC, and phones from i-mate and Nokia, but that would be a great feature to add to the PSP.

Don't Need Special Software

[Greyfox]

With the Nokia E70 -- it's got a sip dialer already. The problem is finding a wifi network where you want to make a call. If you could get it going at home and office that'd be plenty for a lot of people. I still need to investigate the possibility of connecting to my home asterisk server through T-Mobile's unlimited data service, either directly from the cell or by installing asterisk on the laptop and connecting to the Internet through the phone's bluetooth modem and then running an ad-hoc wifi network on the laptop. That would be sick! I'm not sure their data service provides enough bandwidth to run a voip call, but it's a neat idea.

Re:

[Ken_g6]

I thought of that before. Usually, those cell-network-based data services have a special clause in the contract forbidding VOIP use. :(

Latency

[suggsjc]

Even though T-Mobile is just GPRS (with EDGE in a few places) the bandwidth isn't the real issues with that situation working, its the latency.

I've got to run to a meeting so I can't provide the full GPRS specs but most GPRS transmitters allocate a smaller number of channels to uploading, so despite my original claim that bandwidth isn't the issue it still is. So the either way, your not going to be able to make a VoIP call over T-Mobile's current data network.

For the other /.'ers:

1) Has anyone tried this

Re:

[TheRaven64]

The grandparent didn't mention which country he is in. Here in the UK, T-Mobile has good UTMS coverage (anecdotally, I found places where I barely had a GSM signal with Orange had a full strength UTMS signal with T-Mobile), and they are pushing their unlimited Internet access contracts quite hard. When I signed up it was limited to 40MB/month, which cost about as much as 4MB/month from other providers. The latency is not great, but it's not too bad. With Orange/GPRS I was getting ping times of about 2 s

Re:

[Greyfox]

I'm in the USA (had to special order my E70 but it works fine with T-Mobile's network.)

Eew yeah... I just ran a ping from my laptop across the connection and it's up over 500 msec on average. Ouch. Well no voip (Or WoW) on that thing...

Still I don't talk on the cell much when I'm out and about and most of the places where I do are likely to have a wifi network. There's no way I come close to the number of voice minutes I have on the minimum rate plan for the cellphone in my circumstances. It's more for

Re:

[tengwar]

I set up my E70 with Asterisk over WLAN last night. It worked, to the extent of being able to hear the test voice menu system and navigate it. I've only got one extension set up at the moment, so I've not had the chance to do a two way call yet. The main problem I had was that audio quality was very poor - ok most of the time, but then bursts of "static" which lost a couple of seconds of sound. I was about 15 feet away from my DG834G access point, so signal strength was not an issue, and there was nothing

Re:

[Greyfox]

You might want to check out the latest firmware upgrade from Nokia. A few people have reported problems with it but it's really improved the ability of the phone to stay connected to both my WAP and my asterisk server and makes a lot of operations on the phone a lot faster. Just keep in mind that it can potentially turn your $600 hanset into a paperweight...

I have a problem connecting between the E70 and the outgoing zaptel line. VOIP connections are fine and a pure end-to-end zaptel connection (FXS to FX

Re:

[Plutonite]

Even if you connected to your asterisk server, how would you find the IP of anyone else you wanted to call if they weren't registered with your SIP server? Don't you need another PBX server or the like?

Disabled

[Microlith]

How long until providers disable this, so they can force you to go through their network and spend your minutes/data access fees.

Re:

[DJProtoss]

Depends on how the access works.
If going over edge / gprs / 3g then I am aware of at least one provider in the uk (which one slips my mind at the moment) that explicitly bans it in their T&C's.
On the other hand, if its going via wifi, well there isn't too much the provider can do (since its not going via them), at least in the UK (In the US, where the telcos seem to have more power to demand specific changes to phones to put in limits/restrict which phones get released, and where it is apparantly hard

Not very encouraging

[aadvancedGIR]

I know I may be wrong, but if it makes the headline, it must be a great acomplishment performed by top engineers who have spent weeks to study and configure the two phones until they finaly managed to connect them.
If it is true, and even if it is free, it would be a big step backward from classic GSM/GPRS/UMTS.
If it is false, why make a story about two guys calling each other?

Not the first

[Simon80]

Some other comments have alluded to this, but to make it explicitly clear, these guys aren't strictly the first to do this. The beauty of SIP (which is the protocol in question) is that it is interoperable with any of these platforms already, as long as the user has a SIP client, they can make voice and video calls to other platforms. I'm not sure about each mobile phone, but PDAs definitely already have this capability using SJPhone. Still, anything to make people aware of SIP is a good thing, cause it is confusing at first, but once you look into it it becomes clear that SIP, or something similarly open, is the future of both fixed and likely mobile communication.

Good news, everyone!

[Godji]

Wonderful! If this stuff becomes popular on a large scale, how long will it be before we have really cheap mobile phone calls/transfers as opposed to the current situation, in which mobile telcos control all networks and extort their customers with ridiculous voice and data fees?

Video? Oh no..

[Rob T Firefly]

Both Nokia E Series and N Series Wi-Fi enabled phones tested, showing not only Voice but IM, video and conference calling.

That's all the world neds, cellphone video conferences. You know how it's nigh-impossible to take a flattering picture of yourself by holding a camera at arm's length? Welcome to the camera phone version of that, video chatting while staring at low-res views straight up each other's noses.

Re:

[TheRaven64]

My mobile already supports video conferencing, although I've never used the feature (it's a lot more expensive than voice calls). The only new thing is doing this over WiFi, rather than the cellular network, using a mobile 'phone.

Mobile network of the future!

[ElScorcho]

Perhaps this, along with those audio player FM adapters for cars, are the beginning of the mobile, ever changing network envisioned by (I'm pretty sure anyway, I sometimes get stories confused) Cory Doctorow in Eastern Standard Tribe of the highway network. I already think it would be cool to get one of those adapters and a digital display for the back window that displays an FM frequency that would allow people driving along beside you to hear your music, perhaps with a little hacking one of these could

Peer to Peer without a Service Provider

[mrjb]

Well that's just extremely cool! This allows for peer-to-peer without service provider. Now if every phone gets anonimized routing built-in, we no longer need any providers for longer-range calls anymore either. Great for connectivity in time of disaster.

So, no more RIAA/MPAA Big Brothering invading your privacy to check with whom you trade your (home-made, of course) MP3's or movies. Will this finally pop the bubble of bubble-gum "artists"?

Cue downtempo music

[robyannetta]

...and the cellular service providers whisper "DMCA" and post a 'fix' for this in 3... 2... 1...

Oh, to be free...

[dotdevin]

I like this line from TFA: "You pay only EUR2/month to start receiving calls for free."

Some related companies

[johnBurkey]

Seems like there is alot of action in this space. Anyone get this stuff working? I was thinking of grabbing a Nokia if so. Although the rumored iPhone ( http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=791 [appleinsider.com]) is supposed to have wifi too.

http://www.truphone.com/ [truphone.com]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/wireless/0, 39020348,39283143,00.htm [zdnet.co.uk]

John