[asterisk-users] Hardphone SIP phone costs

[Gordon Henderson]

On Wed, 19 Mar 2008, Norman Franke wrote:

> On Mar 19, 2008, at 2:48 PM, asterisk-users-request at lists.digium.com wrote:
>
>> My mobile does not sound terrible, does not have echo, does not fade in or
>> out, and the last time I used it to call the emergency services, I got
>> through straight away. I've not had a dropped call for a long time either
>> (going through tunnels on the train, or over Dartmoor excepted)
>
>
> I've never heard a cell phone on the other end that I couldn't tell was a 
> cell phone, even on a good day.

Over here it's GSM. nothing more nothing less. Yes, it's noticable, but 
it's not terrible and it is consistent. I'm not aware of the networks 
imposing more compression on top of what the handset itself does.

> They compress the audio so much it's rather 
> obvious. That may vary by carrier, AT&T and Verizon being the largest in the 
> US are both pretty awful.

I'm getting the impression that the telcos in the US are basically 
shafting you because of the monopoly they have. More intersted in keeping 
themselves happy than their customers. I think it's nice I have a choice 
of 5 major mobile phone carriers in the UK, and well over 100 ISPs for 
broadband via the BT Wholesale network.

> A fun test is to call a landline from your cell in the same room and 
> note now long the delay is. I find it long enough to interfere with 
> conversations, people talking over each other (especially when both are 
> on cells from different carriers.)

There is a delay - but I've never really noticed it unless I play tricks 
on the network like that. It's certianly nothing like making a call to 
Austrailia!

> None of the carriers really offer a phone that can do SIP, as far as I've 
> seen. As soon as the iPhone software 2.0 is out, there will be one for that.

Don't rely on the carriers to provide you anything - there are plenty of 
phones on the market which do SIP now - most modern Nokias do. I use an 
E90 Communicator, but the E95 is popular too, so I'm experimenting with 
using my mobile as my "one" phone, via Wi-Fi/SIP when I'm in the 
home/office and GSM/3G when out and about. It's not perfect yet, but 
getting there.

(And 10:1 gives you a SIP service on the iPhone that's locked into their 
own service ;-)

Cheers,

Gordon