In message , at 16:57:12 on
Mon, 10 Dec 2007, James Farrar remarked:
My Orange SPV E650 (made by HTC and released by them under their own
brand as well, I believe) does GPRS and WiFi.

How good is it at logging into subscription hotspots (rather than free
ones). Of course, one might expect it to log into "Orange" hotspots
automatically, but I'm not sure they have their own network of them.

The other question relates to using it for VoIP, rather than GSM, calls.
Do Orange have their own service or do you have to buy into something
extra. Can you configure it for existing SIP systems, and services like
Skype?

The original GSM/Wifi phones I saw were designed around revenue
protection for the mobile phone operator, so even if you found a wifi
hotspot all it would do is put a VoIP call through to a server run by
the phone company, and charge at the normal mobile rate. But it was all
supposed to be seamless from the point of view of the user. The benefit
was the wider coverage (we may be used to 99% coverage in the UK, but
it's far more patchy in the USA).

With more and more wifi on trains, as well as increasingly GSM-hostile
trains, perhaps there's a gap in the market for some sort of GSM/Wifi
roaming phone.
--
Roland Perry