[asterisk-users] using a mobile phone as a handset via bluetooth

[Anselm Martin Hoffmeister]

Am Samstag, den 09.12.2006, 14:37 +1100 schrieb James Harper:
> Normally when you think of using Bluetooth with mobile phones you think
> of using it to attach a headset wirelessly to a mobile phone... can it
> work the other way? Can I have a Bluetooth card on my laptop/desktop
> such that my mobile phone can be a handset to a softphone on the
> laptop/desktop?

Yes, but...

For Bluetooth devices, the appropriate gremium defined "profiles",
specifying capabilities for certain device types and how those shall
interact. Most mobile phones seem to implement the "phone" profile
allowing to connect a "headset" profile device. Obviously those are
different specs! And I did not yet find a mobile phone that implements
the "headset" profile correctly.

A possible alternative could be running a full blown SIP client on those
phones that support it. There is SIP client software for at least
Windows CE, I do not know wether Palm, Java phones or whatever will
work. Of course this is only reasonable if your phone supports wireless
802.11 or another means of over-the-air networking (leaving bluetooth,
GPRS is not interesting for SIP transport).

A pity that Windows CE seems to NOT support Bluetooth TCP/IP networking,
at least in those two incarnations that I ran into. It seems mobile
network providers do not like their customers to have an alternative
choice besides GPRS data transfer :-/

I would love to hear if there are phones that actually implement the
"headset" part.

Regards,
Anselm