MobileNest

VOIP was a technology that helped reduced the land line phone costs. The next chapter for the VOIP technology is the mobile story.

“It’s certainly going to be more disruptive to the market than the Apple iPhone,” Engin VoIP chief executive Ilkka Tales says. “What will drive it is the key fact that it can save people money. That tends to get their attention.”

Mobile VOIP call can take one of two paths:

• a device can bypass the mobile cellular network and send calls over the wireless network instead
• a device can make use of data capability of the cellular network itself

Engin, already launched a services designed to work on mobile phones capable of Wi-Fi networks (Nokia’s N and E series handsets). Some phones are pre-loaded with required softphone settings and others can have them installed through similar methods of installing a ringtone or wallpaper. To make a phone call, the phone needs be set to locate an available Wi-Fi network. After the phone is connected, all calls use the Wi-Fi network instead of the mobile network. The current prices of these handsets restrict the service to the premium end of the market. The retail price for Nokia’s N95 Wi-Fi enabled phone is around $1,300.

“Prices will drop quickly though,” Tales says. “There are market forecasts that more than 200 million Wi-Fi handsets will be sold around the world in the next few years, and this will push the capability into the mid and low price tiers.”

Internet Phone Goes Mobile via [AustralianIT]