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January 04, 2005
Come to daddy... oh boy it's a WiFi phone!
Engadget JUST posted on Vonage having a WiFi phone that will be able to make a call from any WiFi hotspot using your Vonage account. Made by UTStarcom, the F-1000 will provide me with "free" service anywhere there's a hotspot. Greensboro's CenterG hotspot will definitely be the first public drooling grounds.
Posted by darkmoon at January 4, 2005 12:26 AM
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» http://life.firelace.com/archives/technology/index.html#000103 from LUX.ET.UMBRA
As I posted earlier, Vonage is finally putting a WiFi phone in our hands. Slashdot covers a link to USAToday where the approximation of $100 for the pricetag of this hot and sexy device. Unfortunately, the rollout date is sometime... [Read More]
Tracked on January 4, 2005 03:18 PM
Comments
As tempted as I am to point out that I predicted this would happen (I did! I swear! No Really! I just can't find it!), I'm going to go ahead and record more predictions instead.
You are going to see this trend increase at an astounding pace, with probably at least half a dozen WiFi VoIP phones coming out this year, and many, many more next. This trend will all come to fruition with the advent of WiMAX (basically a WiFi cell tower), when it will become much cheaper and easier to use VoIP via WiFi cell phone rather than the notably limited VoIP landline or traditional cell phone.
It's the age of the Internet, and everyone's hangin' ten!
Posted by: Michael Akerman at January 4, 2005 10:58 AM
Just because I'm asinine, I'm going to point out that WiMAX is a bit different from a cell phone tower... seeing that I work in both of the industries. ;)
Posted by: darkmoon ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://life.firelace.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 4, 2005 11:34 AM
6 of one, so forth! ;)
I read the How Stuff Works article on it:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/wimax.htm
Posted by: Michael Akerman at January 4, 2005 03:15 PM
Heh. okay. clarification. I just glanced over the WiMax off howstuffworks. 1) Towers can take anything (antennas wise) as long as it's zoned for it. 2) You could stick WiFi antennas underneath a cellular antenna with no sweat. So a tower is just a tower. The only difference between WiMax and WiFi is a little bit better specifications, different spectrum and more bandwidth. In all reality, WiFi does about 27Mbps and WiMax does about 35Mbps. Not much of a difference if you ask me. 4G cellular is already being tested by NTT DoCoMo and is averaging 300Mbps while moving (they're shooting for 1Gbps ideal still value).
Posted by: darkmoon at January 4, 2005 03:31 PM