All this VoIP stuff

[manveruppd]

Upgrade time is round the corner again, and since I work in an area where I get wi-fi coverage, I thought I'd explore all this VoIP stuff that I've read mention about on this forum. My questions are:

a. is VoIP supported by specific phones only, or is any wi-fi capable phone able to use VoIP if you simply install Skype on it?

b. do any networks block VoIP? Do any networks have special rates for VoIP calls, or do they all use Skype's rates?

c. if you have a phone with VoIP capabilities, will it know when to use them? What I mean is, will it automatically detect that you're within wi-fi coverage and online and automatically route a call through Skype, or do you have to manually launch Skype yourself?

d. how good is the integration of VoIP into the phone's interface? Does it do stuff like automatically use the phone numbers in your phone's memory, or do you have to manually add every single contact from your phone's address book into Skype yourself? Does this vary between different handsets?

e. Is there any advantage to getting a handset that has Skype preinstalled than to getting a wi-fi capable handset and installing it yourself?

f. Are there other VoIP software that can be used for mobiles, or just Skype? Which mobile operating systems apart from WM5 is Skype available in?

I realise this is a lot of stuff, but any guidance you can give me will be appreciated!

 

[uchuff]

I can only tackle part of that based on my experience but here goes...

With T-Mobile you need to pay for their top Web'N'Walk package (£17.50/mo I think) as VOIP is not allowed on any of the lesser W'N'W packages (think they've actually started checking for it / blocking it now).

On my N95 I could use Fring or another third party app to make and receive VOIP calls including Skype and SIP, not particularly well integrated into the phone in this respect.

I did read that T-Mobile (not sure if it is the UK entity) was going to release a new phone that used VOIP seamlessly when there was a WIFI hotspot around - don't know if there's something already out there that does this.

 

[manveruppd]

With T-Mobile you need to pay for their top Web'N'Walk package (£17.50/mo I think) as VOIP is not allowed on any of the lesser W'N'W packages (think they've actually started checking for it / blocking it now).

That's interesting... I assume w'n'w is their GPRS data package, right? I'm not with them so I don't know. So if you were online using your home or office wifi network, for instance, was there anything to stop you from using VOIP through that?

I did read that T-Mobile (not sure if it is the UK entity) was going to release a new phone that used VOIP seamlessly when there was a WIFI hotspot around - don't know if there's something already out there that does this.

That would be pretty nice actually, if anyone knows which phone this would be and if the same functionality could be used on other networks if it were sim-unlocked please post and say so!