[lug] VoIP: T-Mobile @Home

[Nate Duehr]

On Mon, 11 May 2009 07:50:50 -0600, "Gary Hodges" <Gary.Hodges at noaa.gov>
said:
> I was in a Longmont T-Mobile store this weekend and learned about a VoIP 
> service they have.  Combined with a suitable cell plan, you can get VoIP 
> for home for $10/month.  The router is a one-time $40 expense.  I did a 
> little research this weekend and discovered I can disconnect the regular 
> copper at the demarcation point, then just connect the VoIP router to a 
> jack to make use of my home's phone wiring.  Seems simple enough.
> 
> The hang ups, questions and concerns:
> 1.  Does VoIP really sound as good as POTS?

Not always.  The other comments I've seen so far, I'd say "ditto".  

> 2.  Are the 911 issues really solved?  With T-Mobile you register your 
> address on-line, and presumably that info is available to emergency 
> people during 911 calls.  Can I trust this?

Can you trust Qwest to do it?  LOL!  ;-)

One thing to keep in mind, the only time E911 really comes into play is
if someone is hurt enough that they can dial 911 but can't speak. 
Otherwise, you give 'em an address in voice anyway... 

> 3.  Any chance of Comcast (my broadband provider) giving me one of those 
> heavy usage warnings?  I see an article or two about Comcast throttling 
> third party VoIP technologies.  Is this seemingly good deal from 
> T-Mobile doomed to failure?

Think someone else covered the bandwidth issues, but of course this
could also play out in the "Net Neutrality" debate... Comcast and other
cable companies have no business reason NOT to mess with your 3rd party
VoIP traffic, since they offer their own VoIP service.  I haven't seen
them DOING it, but... anyway... just something to think about.

Other comments: 

- You may want battery or other backup power for the IP network and
router... if you want them to work when the power goes off.  Standard
VoIP problem.
- My understanding about T-Mo's setup is that you must use certain
phones that can "roam" from their cell network to 802.11 "seamlessly". 
I haven't seen much online saying that part has any problems, but you
are limited to certain hardware for the handset.
- If you have someone that's "chatty" or you have multi-hour work
conference calls or anything like that... battery life on the handset
could be an issue.
- I have no idea what happens if you start a call while mobile (cell
network) walk in your back door just as your battery on the cell is
getting low (roam over to 802.11 network) and then pick up a house
phone, nor whether the indications on the cell/802.11 handset are good
enough to tell when the system has switched over so you could pull-off
such a stunt.  (LOL!)
- Be cautious about pricing, ask for the full price INCLUDING TAXES ...
there's so many taxes on home phone services these days, that it almost
makes up 1/3 to 1/2 of the price tag.  The Qwest hard copper line
without features on it, starts to look a lot more competitive once you
get the FULL bill.  Just sayin'... not a Qwest fan.

I've been on Vonage at the house for a couple of years now.  Mainly my
complaints are that it does have a tendency to crap out at inopportune
times, and it does NOT give you any indication that its doing so. 
Upstream seems far more affected than downstream audio to you... so
people just start saying "you're on your VoIP phone aren't you... you
sound like crap all of a sudden".  This is embarrassing and/or
potentially a problem mainly with important business calls. 
Family/friends... they don't really care, it just annoys them.

Also one other thing to be aware of... how much do you trust your IP
carrier and their upstream not to packet-sniff or have disgruntled
employees who do?  Obviously that could be a problem at a traditional
telco too these days... but the "hacker" culture is far more "alive" in
VoIP companies.  Few of them use any sort of ATA to Switch encryption of
any sort.  G.711 and a few others are three mouse clicks away from being
a WAV file on Wireshark, for example... it's that easy to "wiretap" a
call.  This I think will start to be more of a problem as time goes on.

I love all this tech, but I also over-analyze it in my head looking for
silliness like the "wiretap" thing.  Easy to do.

Nate 
--
  Nate Duehr
  nate at natetech.com