EarthLink will test a custom Accton voice over IP (VoIP) over Wi-Fi phone on their metro-scale networks, starting in Anaheim: The service and handset are free during a testing period, and includes only domestic calling in this period. The phone's charging cradle is also an 802.11g gateway. Anaheim customers can contact the company to sign up for testing; Anaheim is one of EarthLink's earlier large-scale deployments.
The phone and cradle/gateway are expected to cost $100 at launch. Unlimited domestic inbound and outbound calling will likely be $25 per month, and 500 outbound/unlimited inbound domestic calls would run $15 per month.
The service and phone don't require a subscription to EarthLink's metro-scale network, as it will work with any broadband network. Of course, if you want wide-area roaming, their networks are the obvious choice as a provider.
It appears as if the service is tied to their phone. There is this quote in the release, "'What separates our Wi-Fi phone from others is its ability to work over EarthLink's municipal Wi-Fi networks,' said Steve Howe, EarthLink's senior vice president of voice."
Does this mean that other SIP phones or dual band phones will not work? Is this an attempt to control the hardware and service. Has anyone tried using a different phone over the Anaheim network?
If this is true and we are locked into an Earthlink/Accton solution, it could spell doom for rapid adoption and raise the hackles of the "Free the Airwaves" folks.
Later on it also mentions that the Accton system is and ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) based system. This would be similar to Vonage's home adapter. Again, more questions, can you use it while roaming about the network or just when in range of your own ATA base station?
Lastly, is it encrypted or are folks going to be able to sniff my call and play it back with VoiPong (http://www.enderunix.org/voipong/) or something similar?
There are many questions we still have no answers to.
[Editor's note: The first part is about authentication. No consumer VoIP phones I'm aware of will support the kind of login necessary to use EarthLink's municipal networks. They use a standard that will appear in phones later, or work through interesting workarounds; this standard is already in corporate VoIP phones, and it's not a big deal to add.
As for the ATA: This is a Wi-Fi phone that can work both as a phone that connects via Wi-Fi to an ATA in the cradle or through a Wi-Fi connection. -gf]
I tried the new Earthlink phone in Anaheim with the Earthlink folks a few weeks ago.
My observations were that the phone is nice, it works, that when you're near an access point it is very cell phone like.
The coverage using the Tropos Access Points does not really work indoors so you need some interior access points for that to happen, which Earthlink supplies (i.e. the base station) and in theory other WiFi phones will work, presuming you can log on to the Earthlink Feather network with them.