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July 6, 2006

VoIP Phones for EarthLink Wi-Fi Networks?

By Glenn Fleishman

Over at GigaOm, they’re saying EarthLink will sell Wi-Fi-only VoIP phones in fourth quarter: For $10 to $25 per month, the voice plan will include calling and exclude data. They’re testing phones right now for deployment, Katie Fehrenbacher writes, and expect the phones to work in transit—she reports their VP of VoIP says the testing shows current models work at up to 40 mph. Wi-Fi operators and aggregators have been settling on a much lower rate, such as the Boingo/Skype mash-up (still in beta after many moons and with hard-to-find, out-of-date copy) that offers unlimited service for $7.95 per month.

The biggest problem appears to be the cost of these phones—EarthLink will have to subsidize the phones for a while, and Fehrenbacher quotes VP Steve Howe saying, “this business will get really interesting when the phones get down to the $40 range.” It’s true. A new Linksys phone has all the right bells and whistles for using Wi-Fi on arbitrary networks, including a micro-browser for authentication and gateway page clicking, but it’s nearly $400.

Posted by Glennf at July 6, 2006 1:32 PM

Categories: Metro-Scale Networks, Voice

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