wVoIP - Wireless Voice
Over Internet Protocol
wVoIP or Wireless Voice Over
IP is an emerging technology soon to be reckoned with.
In fact wVoIP is gaining so much momentum that the first
wVoIP Executive Summit is being held in September 2005
in San Jose, California to discuss the key topics in
the emerging wVoIP industry.
Wireless VoIP technology has
the Baby Bells and large cellular phone companies taking
note. Within the next 3 - 5 years, wVoIP may be replacing
the cell phone and landline landscape as we know it
today. Instead of parents and children calling on home
l phones, wVoIP phones may be more commonplace.
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wVoIP
phones have already penetrated the business market.
For companies where employees spend much of their
time on the run rather than at their desks, having
wVoIP phones make sense. For instance, maintenance
staff in a campus setting can benefit from being
connected by wVoIP since they are rarely at their
desks. wVoIP in this scenario is much cheaper
than connecting employees by cell phone since
the "desk" is a movable object around
the campus.
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Business travelers are starting
to see the advantage of wVoIP. Wireless VoIP hotspots
can generally be found at airports, hotels, café's
and other places business travelers frequent. This means
that a businessperson with a wVoIP phone can make very
cheap calls from anywhere in the world that a wireless
hotspot exists.
Some of the cell phone manufacturers
are also getting into the game, offering dual-purpose
cell / wVoIP hybrid phones. When a user is near a wireless
hotspot, the phone will roam to that connection first,
saving the user money. When out-of-range of a hotspot
the phone will connect to the traditional cell network
connection. This dual purpose technology is expected
to be in place for some time to come since having wVoIP
phones replace cell phones altogether will be a monumental
task.
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Presently, Rio Rancho, New Mexico,
has launched the first metro area wVoIP service. Azulstar
Networks and Ecuity offer the basic service for $29.95
per line for unlimited calling to the United States
and Canada.Also, in Septermber, 2003, Dartmouth college
became the first Ivy League college to embrace wVoIP,
offering free softphones to incoming freshmen.
Cable wVoIP service has been
slow to come around but interest is brewing. Currently,
the cable companies that offer cellular phone service
must buy and rebrand this service from other companies,
leaving only a 15-percent gross income before expenses
on each transaction. With wVoIP, cable companies will
be looking to expand this margin to 35-percent. For
more information see the wireless
VoIP page.
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