VON: TelTel uses WiFi for pocket-sized SIP phone

TelTel and D-Link today are announcing a SIP-enabled Wi-Fi handset that they believe is the first pocket-sized VoIP phone.

The new phone is strictly Wi-Fi--and not dual-mode--and comes with TelTel’s VoIP service. It can be used via any Wi-Fi hot spot, including commercial networks, free hotspots, home networks and campus networks.

“This untethers people from their computers to make a VoIP call more portable,” said Jack Change, TelTel’s president and COO. “We think it’s perfect for university campuses--which are one giant hotspot--or for enterprise locations.”

The TelTel service features free on-net calls and two-cents-per-minute offnet calls. The service comes with a buddy list feature and presence awareness.

“The phone synchronizes with a soft client on the PC, but then you can turn the PC off,” Chang said. “Once the information is configured, you no longer need the PC.”

D-Link will be selling the phone in retail outlets such as Circuit City and Best Buy for a manufacturers’ suggested retail price of $249 and a likely street price of $199, Chang said. The phone has three hours talk time and 70 hours standby time.

TelTel will make $5 a month for direct-inward dialing capability, including phone number assignment, and also plans to offer advanced services, such as conferencing, for $20 a month.

The company is primarily a wholesale VoIP provider, selling to SVNOs--SIP-enabled virtual network operators such as PackeTel in San Jose, Digitrad in France, Seednet in Asia and ProLink in Thailand.

“They offer branded services under their own name, and will be a channel for this phone,” Chang said.

Other potential advanced services include IP-based detection which relays motion detection signals via the SIP phone and directs streaming video to a client PC.

“You get a call alerting you to activity and can then take a look at the video,” he said.

TelTel is looking at dual-mode opportunities, but Chang said the business case is trickier, since it involves dealing with wireless spectrum owners. In the meantime, the proliferation of municipal Wi-Fi networks and other publicly available Wi-Fi nets make the Wi-Fi phone more attractive.

“Within any closed environment, such as an enterprise or a campus, you can roam with the unit and save on cellular minutes,” he said. “As Wi-Fi becomes more popular, we will see more interest.”