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Making that first voice-over-Wi-Fi call
I've been trying out HP's iPaq 514 Voice Messenger phone, which turns out to be a very nice lightweight handset despite having built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless interfaces.
This Windows Mobile 6 device also comes with a built-in SIP client for IP telephony, which is designed to pair up with a SIP server or IP PBX when a worker is in their office and in range of the corporate Wi-Fi network. The problem is, how to go about testing this without access to such infrastructure?
Fortunately, it turns out that there are online SIP service providers that allow you to access IP telephony over a broadband internet connection. Many of these, such as the one I chose to try out – Freespeech.co.uk – are free to sign up for, and offer free calls to other VoIP numbers.
Armed with an 0844 number and my registration details from Freespeech, I set about configuring the iPaq 514 to connect. However, it turns out that the SIP client cannot be configured from the handset itself. Users instead have to link the phone to a Windows PC and use the HP iPaq Setup Assistant that comes on a CD-ROM with the phone.
This tool turns out to be very handy and lets you configure almost all aspects of the handset, including Wi-Fi access point settings, email accounts, speed dial numbers, and even populate the browser Favourites list.
With all necessary configuration information entered, I turned on Wi-Fi and connected the phone to my wireless router at home. The VoIP client then looked for the SIP server and connected, showing the status message "freespeech.co.uk selected". The "selected" part means that any calls made will now go via the internet instead of the cellular network.
I made a quick call using the phone to a colleague that had also signed up on the same service, and found the call quality excellent, if a little on the quiet side.
Overall, I was surprised at how easy it was to get voice-over-Wi-Fi working on this handset. That said, the settings Freepeech emailed to me did not exactly match those in the iPaq 514 configuration screen, and I had to make an educated guess to bridge the gap between the two.
The only drawback to this setup is that I now have a separate phone number for calls made over VoIP that differs from my landline and the mobile number of the iPaq.
This will probably not be a problem in a business environment, as the SIP service will link to the corporate infrastructure and probably tie in with the user's desk phone. For home users, the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) VoIP protocol, which features in RIM's new BlackBerry 8820, instead links the handset with the mobile carrier's infrastructure.
A full review of HP's iPaq 514 Voice Messenger will appear in a future issue of IT Week.
3G/GPRS versus Wifi hotspots: which is cheaper?
No, we couldn't work it out either, but here's the story of a valiant attempt to define value for mobile email money ...
It is a rare luxury to keep hold of any piece of IT equipment long enough to gain a proper understanding of its merits, but for the last few months I have been fortunate enough to travel far and wide with the Orange Business Everywhere Data Card as a companion.
I say fortunate, because it has proved genuinely useful, helping me turn otherwise dead time spent sitting in stations, airports and other transport hubs into windows of productive opportunity through the magic of mobile email and Internet access.
The big question, as yet not completely answered I'm afraid, is whether signing up to a high speed data packet access (HSDPA) service offering a theoretical maximum downstream bandwidth of 1.2Mbit/s, which defaults back to either a 64Kbit/s general packet radio service (GPRS) or EDGE link whenever it cannot find a HSDPA signal (which is often) is actually worth the price premium you pay rather than attaching yourself to the nearest WiFi hotspot whenever necessary.
The Sierra Wireless Aircard 850 Orange provides as part of the Business Everywhere service costs £115, including an extra strength antenna that clips onto the lid of the notebook PC.
Using the service from IT Week's office in Soho, central London with the clip on antennae, I recorded downstream speeds of 507.33Kbit/s downstream and upstream speeds of 350.9Kbit/s upstream - more than adequate for reading email and web browsing, although some pages take more time than others to download and transferring large files can be problematic.
Trying the same test again with the standard antenna attached to the data card yielded far less impressive results though: 23Kbit/s both up and downstream, much less than GPRS through the signal indicator showed a strong 3G connection, and only really good for reading text based email.
One benefit I had not anticipated was using the Orange mobile data network as a backup to keep me connected from home when my broadband ADSL line goes down, which it does too frequently for comfort.
Living in a small village in the middle of nowhere the Orange mobile signal in my house is quite weak, which means the network's data transfer speed fell a long way short of 56Kbit/s dial-up. But then I suppose that in any situation where equivalent wired or wireless access is unavailable, any connection is better than none at all when you are desperate to access your work email.
If there is any complaint at all about the card, inevitably it centres around cost. The availability of international roaming connections actually turned out to be much better than I’d hoped for the countries I visited during the test (apart from China). It was rare for me not to get some sort of signal in any of the other places I visited, mostly Western Europe and US, though it was usually GPRS rather than the faster HSDPA or EDGE.
The trouble is, most of the locations I used the card in (which tended to be airports and hotel rooms) were also served by public access WiFi hotspots. And cost comparisons of using the Orange Business Data Card service compared to just latching on to the nearest WiFi hotspot are very hard to make.
All Orange could tell me is that during the period of 24th April to 23rd May, I sent and received 55MB of HDSPA/GPRS data which cost me about £50, which may or may not have exceeded my monthly data allowance depending on which monthly tariff I was theoretically signed up to.
So whether this compares favourably to using WiFi hotspots, which generally deliver more bandwidth but are charged for by the minute rather than the megabyte, for the same amount of data in a monthly period is difficult if not impossible to assess on the evidence available.
That said, the fact that Orange's international data roaming charges range from £5.50 to £6.50 (the tariffs are listed at the following url: http://www.business.orange.co.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Business&c=OUKPage&cid=1044131837716) indicate that WiFi might be the cheaper option if you do most of your mobile web surfing from outside the UK.
All in all, as clear as mud, so no change there as far as international roaming charges are concerned. Let's hope the EC can deliver on its promise to make mobile charges in general more transparent.
Can Virgin Media customers reach for the Sky?
Do Virgin Media's bosses believe there is a circle of life? Well, the news that Italian ISP Tiscali has announced its intention to buy the broadband and voice assets of Pipex Communications could see something 'quite remarkable', as the grand old man of sports commentary, David Coleman, was not averse to saying.
A takeover of Tiscali by its larger rivals, BT, Sky and Virgin Media, has been an enduring fixture at rumour central for a fair while. Whenever I phoned to ask if any of the rumours were true, I got the standard response – 'no'. However, in the business jungle today, firms saying 'no' can have that response converted to a 'yes', providing enough folding drink vouchers are wafted upwind of key executives.
At the minute, there's seems to be nothing in the way of the UK Office of Fair Trading rubber stamping this and giving the happy couple a cheery wave as they start their honeymoon. But after the dust settles what then? Could the new Tiscali, with over two million broadband customers, survive in the cut-throat UK broadband market – or would someone make them an offer they couldn't refuse?
Tiscali recently copped hold of the Sky channels that Virgin Media and Sky are battling it out in court over. Imagine Virgin Media making a winning bid for Tiscali 'x' months down the line – well, at least some of its customers could then reach for the Sky.
Mobile broadband still to live up to expectations
Recently, my colleague Martin Veitch wrote in this blog about his favourable impressions of using Thus’s Mobile 3G Broadband modem with a laptop while away on a press trip.
Martin was enthusiastic about the technology, but found 3G coverage to be patchy. I have come to the same conclusion while testing out a couple of laptops for a future edition of IT Week.
The Dell Latitude D630 and Fujitsu-Siemens P 7230 are both equipped with built-in wide-area network capability, rather than relying on an external USB modem as Martin did. All that is required is to insert a SIM for a valid network subscription, and both laptops enable you to be connected to the internet from pretty much anywhere.
For my tests, I used a SIM kindly loaned to me by Vodafone, which fitted into the battery compartment in both of the laptops. In our central London offices, I was able to get a strong 3G signal and browse the web without being kept waiting.
However, outside London, it is a different story. I tried out both laptops at home in St Albans, just outside the M25 and about 25 miles from the centre of London. Here, it proved impossible to get a 3G connection, despite the fact that, according to Vodafone's coverage map, I should have been able to access the high speed (up to 1.4Mbit/s) HSDPA version of 3G as well.
This seems a shame, since it is users that live or work away from the metropolitan areas that might benefit most from a 3G subscription. In London, you never seem to be far away from high-speed access via a Wi-Fi hotspot these days, but that is not the case in many other places.
A year and a half with Dell’s Latitude X1 bundle of joy
IT Week Executive Editor Martin Veitch offers his long-term usability experience of using Dell's ultraportable
It’s been a little over a year and a half since I took delivery of my gorgeous little one and I’m happy to report that I’ve never once had cause to regret the moment that teeny thing came into my life.
Yes, that’s right, as usual when a man reverts to baby talk, I’m referring to a sweet piece of mobile technology. However, I’m not overstating matters in viewing the last 18 months spent with Dell’s Latitude X1 as life changing.
With a weight only a little over 1kg, the X1 fits squarely into the ultra-portable category, making it ideal for day-to-day travel, but it doesn’t skimp on key features. As well as packing a 1.1GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB RAM and 12in wide-screen panel, the X1 also has Bluetooth and both SD Card and Compact Flash readers. Usability is excellent. Despite being very light, the unit is well balanced and the keyboard and trackpad work nicely. The power pack is also small and neat.
The sacrifices involved in making the weight and size for the format have been tolerable. With Wi-Fi on, the X1 struggles to survive much more than an hour without resorting to mains power. That could be a big problem with users who travel long distances on trains and planes, but it’s fine for my 30-minute commute. In any case, the second battery option is elegant for those willing to pay extra.
The DVD drive is external but, again, that has represented no problems for me. I’ve used it only a couple of times - another sign that disk-based media is losing its grip on computing life.
The only caveats apply to fit and finish. By clumsily dropping the machine I managed to badly fracture the screen, necessitating a swap-out replacement. The same thing happened to the power pack. More recently, the underside case next to the SD Card reader enclosure cracked, and a couple of weeks ago, the Dell badge fell off the case.
Still, if you’re more careful than me, this is a laptop to delight in, and other X1 users I have met agree that this is an outstanding PC, if not a cheap one.
But there's a bitter twist in the tale of this story: Dell is now pushing the new Latitude D430 as its ultraportable option, and the X1 is no more. Maybe it's great but it will take loyal X1 users like me a lot to admit that there is a better model out there.
