The New York Times syndicated a story on VoIP phones. Unfortunately most of the phones they detailed are not the most recent, nor are they the best ones out there.
Granted the NY Times is a mass circulation paper, but the inclusion of the UT Starcom F1000 for Vonage is a sin. The phone has been out for over a year or more, in various configurations, from various suppliers. I had similar phones working with Free World Dialup, Net2Phone, VoicePulse and Broadvoice in the middle of 2005 or earlier. Calling this phone one of the “latest” is a misnomer.
There already is a new phone, and has been for a few months, from UT Starcom, the F3000 which performs much better and supports any SIP based carrier that provides SIP credentials.
Side note: Earthlink’s phone group, led by pal Steve Howe, is reportedly working on an under $99 phone that will be rolled out as part of their municipal WiFi plans. Steve talked about this on my panel at last month’s MuniWireless conference in Minneapolis.
Bottom line–WiFi phones are here and much better phones are coming.
“The future is already here – it’s just unevenly distributed.”
– William Gibson