Industry-Standard VOIP Phone Using All Free Software

Ralf Ackermann writes: "Voice over IP on a HardPhone running Linux and just using Open Source software became real. We have sucessfully installed and tested (interoperability with Cisco 7960 as well as Pingtel xPressa in an environment with a partysip SIP registrar and proxy) the linphone SIP phone on a StrongARM based TuxScreen. Here is the link describing the steps for others to use the setup as well: TuxScreen running SIP. All the infos for setting up a comparable installation can be found on the URL, please also feel free to ask or drop opinions. Many thanks to the linphone developers as well as to my student Florian Winterstein (for working on a console linphonec version). The setup (on a StrongARM system) is well suited for PDA (iPAQ) or wearable environments as well."

Phone companies had 50+ years to become efficient

[Anonymous Coward]

But I'm still coughing up $20/month for basic phone service. That's $240/year folks. And where's that $240 going? Maintenance? I'll enjoy seeing these fat dinosaurs be replaced by VOIP.

Wireless is making net phones less relevent.

[io333]

I used to run something like that on the dark side of OSes, but now my cell phone plan is so cheap with practically unlimited nationwide long distance and free roaming, I have *zero* need for such a thing. The only time I could see that it might be useful nowadays is if I were making a lot of overseas calls.

Re:Phone companies had 50+ years to become efficie

[rob-fu]

Yeah but do you think things will be any different? Who will regulate VoIP when it is ready to replace what we currently have?

Maybe I'm being pessimistic here, but I think that when VoIP is phased in, we may see lower prices but the system will still get the shit taxed out of it. Essentially, the only thing that will change is the technology underlying the means of how we communicate. Then again, that's just my opinion. :)

Re:All well and good. Any for sale?

[njb42]

The TuxScreen phone itself was selling for $99 not too long ago. I have one in my closet (which I will now have to drag out so I can play with this project).

IMHO that's what makes this implementation so revolutionary. Other posters were asking why this is newsworthy? Well, a $100 phone that runs open-source VoIP is pretty newsworthy to me. I've done both VoIP and voice-over-frame-relay installations, and you're talking about thousands of dollars for even a small implementation (using IP phones or regular digital PBX phones, special cards in the PBX and the router, special software, and so on).

Compare this to $100 phones and a gateway running on a cheap Linux box.

Re:Phone companies had 50+ years to become efficie

[demaria]

How often does your Internet connection go down? How often does your router or Ethernet switch crash? Do you ever get a guarenteed or consistant data and latency rate?

Now how often do your telephone systems crash? How often does the quality of the call degrade or drop during the call?

Traditional phone systems are consistant, rock solid stable, and can handle a large user base.