[antalis]

Hello everyone,

I have been looking for an answer to this all over the net and also in the existing threads here, but haven't succeeded yet.

My situation is: I am looking to buy a Blackberry Pearl (that's sure). I have to decide either on the 8110 (GPS, but not WLAN) or the 8120 (WLAN, but no GPS).

In order to evaluate the usefulness of the WLAN, can someone tell me: Can I use the WLAN for VOIP calling via an open provider, e.g. via the SIP protocol? I plan to use the phone with an existing prepaid SIM card and I do not want to be dependent on some telco's offerings. ==> What are the technical standards of this kind of phone? Do they talk SIP or something similar?

I imagine the usage like this: Whenever the phone senses an open WLAN or at least the one in my home, it connects to some open VOIP service that I'm registered with, so at this time (whenever I'm home) I am reachable with the VOIP phone number additionally to the active GSM number.

I don't want to have to manually switch on the VOIP software or anything, if possible. The VOIP software (either builtin or addon) should be running nonstop.

Is this possible? Or is the VOIP functionality limited to "telco products" like this T-Mobile thing?

Hope I made myself clear in english. Thanks for any info from anyone who has personal experience with this stuff.

[antalis]

Anyone? How do you guys use VOIP on your blackberries? Any experiences? Thanks!

[antalis]

Hi,

let's try this in a more open way: Is anyone using WLAN on their blackberries for anything? If so, for what?

[bmcclure937]

Most people call it WiFi, not WLAN

And there is a tut linked in my signature for WiFi... check that out. Most of your questions are answered there.

It also depends on your carrier if you can do "VoIP"...

[antalis]

Hi bmccluere937, thank you for your reply.
We call it WLAN in Europe, thanks for the tip, I wasn't aware of the terminology.

I don't want to do VOIP over the cell carrier, only over WiFi. And I am buying a free phone, not one crippled by a carrier.

I already read the tutorial linked in your signature. I did not find the answers since I was looking for pragmatic information ("is this kind of WiFi usage possible?" rather than reference/tutorial information ("this is how you configure...").

Well, maybe I'm lucky and there is someone else using WiFi for VOIP on their blackberries?

[RPNOSU]

Well the 8120 on Tmobile has the Wifi and it has UMA possiblities, which is VOIP, by my understanding... are you looking for software that does this or what?

[dknyberry]

I have an 8120 with WiFi, and my wife, an 8110 with GPS. I can tell you that for our uses, the 8120 actually is preferred, and that's because we have really no use for the GPS feature on my wife's 8110 because we both have Garmin GPS units in both our cars. What we do notice is that the WiFi on my phone allows me to surf the internet at just about twice the speed of her 8110 running on AT&T's EDGE network.

We don't really use VOIP, (can't really on AT&T's network anyway), but T-Mobile does allow (UMA - telephone calls thru WiFi). For me, I'd rather have WiFi capability over GPS on my phone anyday.

[antalis]

@dknyberry, thanks for the input. This is the kind of real-life info that I'm looking for.

About UMA: as I understand it, this is a "carrier feature". Is this correct? I am interested only in "free" solutions, i.e. I connect to my WiFi router and use some kind of SIP or other standard VOIP provider.

[dknyberry]

@dknyberry, thanks for the input. This is the kind of real-life info that I'm looking for.

About UMA: as I understand it, this is a "carrier feature". Is this correct? I am interested only in "free" solutions, i.e. I connect to my WiFi router and use some kind of SIP or other standard VOIP provider.

Yes- I believe UMA is a carrier chosen feature. Some carriers will disable it so that you are not able to make free calls when you're in WiFi range, while others will allow it. You'll have to check with your carrier to determine whether or not they'll permit it.

Also, with the 8110, for some reason, it won't render certain web pages as nicely as my 8120. For example, here's a shot of how my phone renders weather.com (on the left), and my wife's 8110. We both have the exact same browser settings checked off and are running the same v4.5 phone operating system, but her's renders the page in simplified version without all the nice graphics.

When her phone loads CNN.com, for example, it takes a full 8 seconds for the page to load using the EDGE network, while I get the page up in 4 seconds when I'm on WiFi. In short, if you have the choice between the 8120 and 8110, I recommend the 8120.

By the way, I don't know about your carrier, but with mine, even though the 8110 has GPS capability, the phone carrier will still not give you free access to use their preinstalled GPS application unless you subscribe to their monthly service. It is such false advertising, in my opinion.

To be fair though, some carriers like mine also will not enable WiFi unless you get their basic data plan. However, with the 8110, even with a data plan, you still have to pay extra every month to use their GPS application. To me, it's an easy choice. The only reason my wife ended up with the 8110 is because she didn't want her phone in blue color- the only color offered from my carrier for the 8120.

[antalis]

Hi dknyberry, thanks for the info. That's interesting, you'd think the applications should be the same for both models.

About the UMA, I think that won't work for me since I am interested only in open solutions, i.e. some software that connects to some server with some protocol, without the carrier "knowing about it".

I think I'll simply get the 8120 and try my luck Thanks again.

[bbhooked]

The only reason my wife ended up with the 8110 is because she didn't want her phone in blue color- the only color offered from my carrier for the 8120.

Haha - its funny what these decisions often come down too!

The Color is important!