A Skyping Belgian with a Skype WIFI phone in the Malaysian (urban) wireless Jungle of Kuala Lumpur.

The new Netgear WIFI Phone was announced quite some time ago (Netgear and Skype kept on announcing it, so it’s one I won’t forget…) with lot’s of marketing buzz.

And here it finally arrived in Malaysia / South East Asia. Some important phrases I picked up from the official announcement.

• «Unmatched Excellence in Design and Engineering NETGEAR’s Skype™ WiFi Phone (SPH101) delivering a breakthrough in communications with excellence in both design and engineering.”
• NETGEAR’s Skype WiFi Phone among this year’s cutting-edge products that have raised the bar in terms of design and engineering
• NETGEAR’s Skype WiFi Phone (SPH101) is the first publicly announced and shipped mobile device certified to make Skype Internet calling over WiFi a reality for the more than 113 million registered Skype users across the globe.
• Please note that the NETGEAR WiFi phone for Skype (SPH101) will not function during a power failure or broadband Internet outage. Neither Skype nor the NETGEAR WiFi Phone is a replacement for your ordinary telephone. Emergency calls will need to be made by alternative methods.

Company : www.netgear.com | (Nasdaq: NTGR)

So with this new gadget, I will not be interested in any security papers on IP (for a while…), neither will I be interested in a Skype Management or Blocking tool (for now). I am already looking funny at the people that will block or limit Skype p2p traffic for this device… Because you are doing more than just keeping the network clean… You could be blocking somebody’s communication and limiting their freedom that they just acquired… And that feels funny, I know. But like I said I am not blocking anything here in my own private place (called home), which is like hot-wired with all kinds of Skype Devices…. (dualphones and other stuff like that…). See below the comparison between different models :

Anyways let’s just check what this device from Netgear can do.

Yep. The future has descended and keeps descending upon Kuala Lumpur / Malaysia, which I discovered few years ago. Unlike some people think, this city is technologically quite advanced. It is such a hot country and it feels like that since I come from colder regions. So now I got myself a Skype Wifi phone. Finally. Provided by Netgear via Vincent Low (regional manager S.E. Asia for www.netgear.com) and it rocks.

Now if I say that it’s because I mean it and I am very difficult and critical on the matter of what works and does not work. Vincent told me to do some hands on testing with this little must-have and this what I shall do.

While I was driving back in the cab, the phone automatically picked all kinds of WIFI - networks, but I did not really connect (to fast moving I guess). Anyways, I am home now and this location provides a 512/1024 ADSL connection (normal streamyx at 99RM per month). There is also 2 wireless hubs here. One Benq AWL-700 running at 10mbps and a Linksys Access Router running at 54mpbs. We shall test the phone in this scenario.

But if you want to cut short, I can already tell you that this phone is something you must have. What immediately struck me is that it is much smaller than I thought. Just have a look. It is white, it is cute, it is squared but feels «roundisch» and it speaks Skype. You must get one. Do it now ! Skype just feels like a telecom company for me. Having a wifi phone with skype on it suddenly creates a totally different world.

It attached itself to my network. I did not have to anything. Just confirm the prompts. So easy. Now mind that (and we’ll come back this) that this is an open network on which I am testing this. Nothing like a «public» hotspot. I did have some funny message on the matter of not getting an IP-number, but that relates to the security setup of my network. Mind you that is where these type of phones might have a problem, where the wifi network is not provisioning easy access or even blocking or limiting access to the p2p  / skype protocol. It has to be as simple and affordable to succeed and nothing is as useless as a phone without a network but in LOCAL WIFI where you can authenticate with a WEP key or some pass-phrase. I do hope that in next field test www.boingo.net will allow me to log-on properly. Boingo is now in the process of working with the Wi-Fi phone and dual-mode phone manufacturers to integrate Boingo's commercial Wi-Fi roaming software into their devices to ensure that users have easy access to our 50,000 hot spots around the world with their VoIP devices (http://www.boingo.com/embedded).  They have also released code in open source format that allows any manufacturer to port the software to their hardware platform easily at no cost to license the code (http://boingowifitool.sourceforge.net).

So, let’s make a call. It shows the avatar/image of the person that you contact, so that is kind of handy, since after a while you get used to these images.

I just called somebody t to convince them that it really works (somebody who is not a great believer in this technology due to certain limitations). I could not reach him. Many people don’t like to be called just like that via skype because in most cases Skype is running on their computer and you disturb them in their work activities. So that justifies exactly the reason why this type of Skype WIFI phone makes sense. I think I might setup a skype account to call me and another one to chat with me… The Netgear WIFI phone does look much better and nicer than the Zyxel WIFI phone. Really. It feels a bit like an Apple Ipod only thicker. And since it is Skype you can obviously do many things with this.

But it does not support chatting. That is a pitty. You can also not send SMS, so those are currently 2 important limitations.

Display of the image :

Well, faces (the skype avatar) look a bit scrambled, out of proportion. But okay the picture is there. Disadvantage is that the phone numbers of the skype profile are just fitting on it. The Skype profile is not totally visible…

Accessories :

Just a cable to feed the phone power, via the usb-port of the pc. Fine for me. There seems to be a provisioning for loading power via a cradle, but my package did not contain that cradle.

Usage :

Very simple. Navigation button feels smooth. Typing text and figures goes well. The buttons are not «sticky». All works, really handy navigation system. What I like about this is that you can just buy a phone, create an account (no sim card needed in this one and off you go). You can create your new skype account with this one and you will be online in no time. So there you have your quick and cheap dial-tone.

Sound test :

I did the first sound-test with for this wifi phone with wife. So me on the computer and me wife holding the phone.
Mostly when speaking directly into the microphone the people could hear me too.

I can work with or without a headset. Has a good speaker phone. What is annoying is that increasing the volume will throw an beep into the other side their ears.. Kind of harsh..

Sound-quality :

Good even when you put people on the speaker-phone. Most of them said there was no echo of their own voice. On the other hand it will also capture any ambient / surrounding / background noise… which is interesting if you are doing a documentary on the birds in the rain-forest but pointless for most normal telephone conversations.

Unexpected :

I use the authorisation request as quick chat, instant messages since this phone does not all chat over skype. But you can add contacts… . Only worked one time of course. Once a user is authorised no point.
I could use this phone also to quickly find a wifi network which saves me the time starting up my laptop to pick up some e-mail…

Finding people :

Very funny is that you have now the telephone-book of Skype-users available for search in your «cell-phone». which telecom/celco can say that … my buddy list in my hand-phone, it’s what I always wanted. but hey : it’s a Skype wifi phone.

Issues :

I was just wondering on the registration of phones in Singapore. Do you need to register this type of phone ? Meaning you can just start it up and then create and account and
Privacy and Security. How to use it safely ?

When the account on pc is set to forward to another SKYPE ID it won’t ring the WIFI phone itself when this phone is running the same account of Skype.
Does it work properly in combination a Skype ID that is running simultaneously
I got a DHCP network at home and when I connected my laptop could not get an IP.
When you have a lengthy contact list in skype, let’s say about 500 contacts, then the loading time will take long. Talking about 10 to 15 minutes here…

The phone and therefore my ears were getting warm (actual hot) after 15 minutes calling time. Now that is a bummer ! But okay, I can solve that with a good headset.

Accessing WIFI networks :

The phone support auto-connect, so basically it will try to connect to any open WIFI network it find (making it ready for the wireless roaming future…). You can enter a SSID network name, assign preferred networks. See more on this topic of WIFI connectivity on my earlier blog-entries. Since we are talking WIFI here, it will suck up battery time. Make sure to carry a loader when you travel. It really goes fast. In my case every hour or so the phone needed to reload… Would be nice also to find in Starbucks and other wifi hotspot a USB-loader plug. Just to come and load-up your cell-phone or your wifi-phone, while consuming a coffee. I would prefer to drink my coffee there…

 

Manual :

Neatly done. Manual is simple to read and there is also a web-version.

Software / Drivers :

Installation of the device is seamless; really. It also does automatic updating of it’s software via it’s WIFI connection.

Support  / Registration :

Can be given by the existing regional customer support contacts of netgear. The did not mention a skype ID on the other hand… The cdrom provides the facility to register your product online.

More on the Netgear Wifi Phone and Boingo.

Do check toms extensive review here. Very nice stuff.

Comments

[Spoof Card]

the zero group now has a skype plugin that allows you to spoof your caller / sender id

[William Stuller]

Hey,

I have been considering one of these handy phones for myself. The only problem for me is the 2 hours talk time. There's nothing on the internet about it, but do you know whether or not you can still talk on the phone while charging it either through the USB or power adaptor?