VoIP On Mobile Phones Inches Its Way Forward

Is the mobile phone world ready for VoIP?

New inexpensive rollouts and tests of high-speed wireless services indicate that VoIP on cell phones is coming. But VoIP pacesetter Skype says the price still is too high.

Joe Nordgaard, managing director of telecom consultancy Spectral Advantage, points to a recent rollout of CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Rev A in the Czech Republic and other deployments of Rev A as evidence that wireless technology is close to being able to adequately handle Voice over Internet Protocol technology, which needs broadband connections to operate efficiently.

Citing the Czech joint Nortel-Telefonica 02 demonstration over the relatively inexpensive CDMA 450 MHz radio spectrum as a harbinger of coming VoIP over mobile phone nets, Nordgaard said broadband speeds would open up VoIP and push-to-talk features. Nordgaard consulted in the demo in Prague, as did Airvana.

"Networks can now move straight to an all-IP backbone and sidestep circuit switching all together," said Nordgaard in an e-mail this week.

Any move to VoIP on mobile phone networks will require some sacrifice by providers. Hutchison Wampao's 3 network offers a version of VoIP on a Nokia handset, but the firm's low price of just under $10 a month for access is likely too low for most service providers.

Last month, Skype executive Eric Lagier told the Reuters news service that carrier charges are still too high to make VoIP take off. He noted that 3's low price would likely put pressure on other carriers to lower their prices, too.

Some independent companies are trying to provide VoIP for cell phones and, of course, there are some mobile phones with Wi-Fi capability that enable callers to make VoIP calls. For instance, Apple's iPhone, due out in June, has Wi-Fi capability.

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