For New Yorkers, Cablevision Introduces a Wi-Fi-Centric VoiP Network 43
The New York Times reports that
Cablevision Systems plans to announce on Monday the start of a low-cost mobile phone service that will use Wi-Fi for connectivity rather than standard cellular networks, the first such service to be introduced by a cable operator. Called Freewheel, the service will offer unlimited data, talking and texting worldwide for $29.95 a month, or $9.95 a month for Cablevision’s Optimum Online customers — a steep discount compared with standard offerings from traditional cellular carriers. Freewheel customers initially must use a specific Motorola Moto G smartphone, which is being sold for $99.95. The service goes on sale next month, and no annual contract is required.
(Reuters carries a similar story.)
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This was kind of what I was thinking. Interesting idea, but Comcast's price is too high when you consider the existing competition.
$30/mo is a terrible price (Score:5, Insightful)
$30/mo is a terrible price. If all you want is talk/text, you can get that, on an ACTUAL cellular network (Cricket/AT&T, and I'm sure other providers) for $25/mo. And, to top it off, they'll only charge you $25 for that Moto G, instead of $100.
As a $5 add-on to your cable plan, it's pretty nice... but not at the "rack" rate.
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Yes it does. Over WiFi. Which has far, far less range than a cellular network. Which means as soon as you leave town... *CARRIER LOST*
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Where I live, the entire metropolitan area is covered with wifi hotspots put up by the local cable/telco companies. I actually have an iPod with Hangouts on it that acts as my in-town phone; this is the first device that Google Talk tries to reach when there's an incoming call.
Since you're not really supposed to be on a phone while in transit, I find this system works amazingly well (and doesn't require half of what Cablevision is requiring). I have a device that is significantly thinner than all phones,
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Since the data is wifi only, I doubt data caps are an issue. On the other hand, as someone who lives in the region (and who is a customer) I know firsthand that there are plenty of dead spots where there will be no access. Want to call home from the supermarket to see if you need milk? You're going to need to walk out to the parking lot first.
On a side note, Cablevision offers customers free wifi routers for home use with their service. These routers also act as wifi hotspots for their network.
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I should clarify that I do not have their mobile phone service, rather, that as a customer, I often try to access their network of wireless hotspots.
Uh... unlimited WiFi data isn't much of a feature. (Score:2)
Most ISP's (and some cell carriers) offer unlimited data on their own WiFi network already. That's not really a very big feature.
There's no sign they are including a single byte of cellular data here.
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Sprint (and perhaps Cricket as well since they're on the Sprint network) does offer actual unlimited data (no throttling crap). Their CEO claims to be a techie so that may be one of the reasons.
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If you could run asterisk on your handheld, then you could reasonably just connect it to a SIP trunk and get the same functionality for $8/mo. Anyone know anyone working on an asterisk port to Android? I heard that the Serval Project [servalproject.org] has done it. But what I think is needed is just an asterisk APK with asterisk and a simple config GUI that gives enough functionality to just get basic trunking working. Voicemail would be stored on the phone itself in this case, which would also be very cool.
Maybe I should exp
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You can just connect any of the many SIP or IAX trunk providers to software. The main issue is battery life sucks.
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You can just connect any of the many SIP or IAX trunk providers to software.
So I haven't actually tried to use my SIP trunk credentials with the Android SIP client, but I'm having a hard time imagining it working...
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It works, issue is SIP not really well designed for a battery powered devices.
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I've used it with CallCentric. It works, but as others have stated it really sucks down your battery life. Instead I now just have an Obi device plugged into regular cordless phones, and I have the unit ring my cell and work desk phone as well. The result is that I get away with using T-Mobile's $30/mo prepay plan that only includes 100 minutes, but has 5GB high speed/ unlimited Edge and unlimited texts.
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Just assign yourself a number in Google Hangouts, and you get this for free, barring wifi connection costs. Voicemail is stored in the cloud, with the option to text message you VTT transcripts as soon as you connect any of your Hangouts-enabled devices to the internet.
I missed what? (Score:2)
Unlimited WiFi data within their local service area is not really that big of a deal, given the wide availability of free WiFi already. And you can already get worldwide free "phone service" (through WiFi) through any number of providers.
It doesnt mention why in TFA... (Score:1)
Tech support reasonons probably (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure they are doing it this way because they don't want to talk Joe Public through the process of replacing whatever dialer they have with the one they'll need for the app.
Massively overpriced (Score:2)
You can get unlimited talk/text for 25 a month through GoSmart.
For people that don't use the phone much you can get 2000 minutes which are good for a full year from PagePlus at a cost of 80 dollars. Or about 6 dollars a month.
Telefonica offers some really cheap pre paid programs with roll over minutes that can see your actual costs per month around 6 dollars with perhaps more minutes from the roll overs.
T-Mobile offers a prepaid 3 dollars a month program which is the absolute cheapest but you only get 30 mi
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given that they're providing service through wifi, what does that mean?
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It means the same thing as a high-definition TV antenna -- nothing.
Republic Wireless (Score:2, Insightful)
Republic Wireless offers the same thing for $5/month.
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I'm betting the phone allows M2M sim cards or something similar which would allow the authentification and encoding to happen in hardware on both the phone and hotspot/VoIP servers.
It would also solve handoff issues when moving from one access point to another.
Comcast hijacking home routers' wireless... (Score:4, Interesting)
The whole controversy last year about Comcast offering public wi-fi using the routers they supply to their home customers suddenly makes a lot more sense. Normal wi-fi data usage from outside users in a residential area is not a widely used feature, but "cellular" wireless is much more common. I bet we'll see a similar service (similarly priced) from them shortly.
Cable company still doesn't get it (Score:1)
If you don't mind all the caveats of having phone service that only works when you're in range of a WiFi hotspot, Freedompop offers exactly the same thing, nationwide, for $5/mo.
And as others have said, if you don't mind hotspot hunting when you want data, you can easily find unlimited talk & text plans on real cellular networks for under $30/mo. Heck, pony up the extra $5/mo for the $35/mo plan and Cricket (which is now a national carrier owned by AT&T) will throw in 1GB of data.
Leave it to cable
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Freedompop also offers free service. 200 mins/mo, 500 text and 500mb of data. Free. As in zero ($) dollars.
I picked up a cheap iphone 4s (sprint), activated it on FP and it is decent. It doesn't do great on the move (driving), but stationary, the voice quality isn't bad. Data speeds are around 1mbps +/- 500mbps.
Their app also offers a similar free service via an app (wifi only) sans data (for obvious reasons).
Wi-Fi-Centric VoiP Network? lets call it sip (Score:2)
$30 a month for Android SIP client, BRILLIANT.
$TMUS T-Mobile is for iPhones? (Score:5, Interesting)
WiFi? Google Voice (Score:5, Insightful)
If you only want to make calls over WiFi, then the solution already exists. Sign up for a Google Voice number, then install the Google Hangouts Dialer, and you're all set.
The potential value-add here is not the voice or texting service, but access to the WiFi network.
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Time Warner and Cablevision have an agreement to allow their customers to use each other's hot spots. You can sign on to an Optimum hot spot with your TWC account and vice versa.
Reliability (Score:2)