The future of VoWiFi – the advantage of telecom companies

Is WiFi really set to be the cellular-killer, as it’s touted to be? After all, VoIP is clear, secure, and feature-laden. And WiFi is cheap and is most likely to be soon ubiquitous, with plans for municipal- and city-wide WiFi networks. However, the existing cellular providers might still have the last laugh. Take for instance UMA—Unlicensed Mobile Access—which is being pushed by some North American cellular...

The future of VoWiFi

We live in an exciting age, as we see a lot of new technologies that make our lives easier spring about almost every day. Not only does technology make life easier, it helps us do things faster and for a lower cost that was unimaginable in the decades past. A hundred years ago, it was the telephone that changed the landscape of communications technology. It was an entirely new experience for people to actually talk...

UMA challenges VoIP

Cellular providers might just have the last laugh, as the industry moves towards wireless and VoIP convergence. A new technology, dubbed UMA—or Unlicensed Mobile Access—is the traditional mobile operators’ response to the growing popularity of VoIP, and this might just be the Skype- or Vonage-killer the telcos have been looking for. UMA basically allows seamless integration of cellular and broadband Internet...

Skype: a threat to national security?

Voice-over-Internet Protocol provider Skype assures its users that for sure, Skype-to-Skype calls, meaning those made directly from one user’s PC to another’s PC, are secured using a 256-bit encryption algorithm. This is even more secure than the 128-bit keys used to encrypt transmission of credit card numbers over the Internet. However, one issue is raised with this level of calling security offered by Skype....

Skype in exclusivity deal with Intel

Bad news to those who love to teleconference using popular Voice-over-Internet Protocol service Skype, but don’t have the right hardware. The latest features of the software will only work on certain Intel-based machines. Skype and Intel announced last week that the latest version of Skype’s client software can support up to 10 users on a conference call. However, this will only work on computers with Intel’s...

Nokia to release VoWiFi phone

It’s quite surprising how one of the world’s top cellular phone maker is opening up to Voice-over-Internet Protocol. Nokia has recently announced that it will soon release the 6136 model that supports VoIP over WiFi networks. This move is seen as bringing the Internet closer to the mass market through the ubiquitous mobile phone. Currently, there are only a few Nokia models that support WiFi, and these are on...

Skype to interconnect with other VoIP providers

If things go well, we can expect better VoIP inter-connectivity, as popular Voice-over-Internet Protocol software provider Skype may interconnect with other VoIP providers. This was disclosed by representatives of eBay, parent company of Skype, as a possibly scenario in the near future, especially in view of Skype’s talks with Google in the establishment of the community-driven FON WiFi network. While Skype has...

Skype partners with FON – wide-area VoWiFi network expected

Leading VoIP provider Skype, along with search engine leader Google and other venture capital firms have recently partnered with FON in the hope of establishing a wide-area WiFi network in Spain, through the FON initiative. FON, a community-driven group aims to connect private WiFi access points into a city- or even country-wide network, starting in Spain and eventually moving on to other areas such as the USA. The...

The VoWiFi question

I just got myself a used smartphone. It’s not exactly brand new, but it serves my need to have a phone with a built-in PDA (or a PDA with a built-in phone?). Before I decided on acquiring this particular phone, I was considering newer WiFi-enabled models by the major manufacturers—such as the Nokia 9500 and 9300i, among others. I was also checking out the mid-range HP iPaq model with wireless Internet. I wanted...

Telcos using VoIP?

It might not be what you would normally expect, but even telephone companies today are likely to be using Voice-over-Internet Protocol to route regular phone calls, instead of their own International Gateway Facilities (IGFs). This seems non-intuitive, especially since telcos themselves build, maintain, and re-sell IGF services, but with today’s communications infrastructure rapidly shifting towards IP-based...