Using A Cell Phone, ONLY As a Skype Phone?

[DasFox]

I've been looking at getting a Skype wi fi phone, but there aren't that many for the USA, and the ones that are, seem to not be so great from the reviews I've read.

Now I'm trying to figure this one out...

If I was to buy a non branded cell phone, I have my eyes on Nokia and it's Wi Fi capable, and I use my broadband wi fi at home and when roaming trying to connect to wi fi hot spots, with Skype installed in a wi fi capable Nokia could you use it to place calls and receive them through Skype without using a cellphone plan to enable the phone?

Also I'd like to know with using the wi fi, if you'd be able to then access the internet capability of the phone, surf the net, check email etc...

THANKS

 

[uli2000]

It would work just fine, but dont spend all that money on a phone you cant use 3/4 of the features on. You can do it with something like a dell x30 that has wifi and bluetooth. Just use a cheap bluetooth headset at a wifi access point for your calls. Or get a Nokia n800 or n810. Since a phone w/ wifi will cost you quite a bit w/o a phone plan, might as well spend the money on the n810, get a much bigger screen, built in keyboard, firefox, and a gps navigator all built in.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You should be ablet o do it. Forget the huge N8xx series. N95/N82 will work. Hell, an iPod touch will work. You can be "almost-iphone" status with that.

 

[DasFox]

ipod touch isn't phone capable...

I'm not looking at getting a very expensive Nokia that has wi fi support, something inexpensive...

 

[pm]

There's a microphone you can buy for the Touch - but it only makes Skype calls... it's not very good at receiving them.

But to answer the question, yes, you can do it and it probably work fine if the WiFi has a decent connection to the internet (Skype on a slow, high latency internet connection is painful) and they haven't tried to block Skype users. And, yes, then you'd be able to surf the net on WiFi as well.

There are inexpensive Nokia phones with WiFi support? WiFi is a pretty high-end feature...

 

[DasFox]

Originally posted by: pm
There's a microphone you can buy for the Touch - but it only makes Skype calls... it's not very good at receiving them.

But to answer the question, yes, you can do it and it probably work fine if the WiFi has a decent connection to the internet (Skype on a slow, high latency internet connection is painful) and they haven't tried to block Skype users. And, yes, then you'd be able to surf the net on WiFi as well.

There are inexpensive Nokia phones with WiFi support? WiFi is a pretty high-end feature...

I believe the Nokia E51 is the least expensive, supporting WiFi...

Dell is selling them, OHHH time to ask Dell for a deal, they always deal, maybe I can talk them into $200 for this one, LOL...

http://accessories.us.dell.com...dhs&cs=19&sku=A1570666

 

[Pliablemoose]

Nokia n800 n810

 

[onlyCOpunk]

You should check around. Because a cell phone company here has Skype phones that use 3G for Skype. 3's the company. I don't know if any companies in the States have this feature yet, but it might be worth looking into.

I guess the Wifi would work, it would just depend if you actually needed to use the phone while out, and also the speed of the network you are connected to.

 

[DasFox]

Actually I'm going to put fring on the phone this works over wifi, and goes through Skype. Skype itself as the application doesn't support as many phones a fring...

Fring's site:

http://www.fring.com/

Youtube on fring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPPrKUKkc8Q

 

[pm]

I used Fring over WiFi on an iPhone and it was fine. There's a small but noticeable delay and I had to dial full international numbers when dialing, but aside from that the sound was clear and it was reliable. I made calls from Germany and Poland from internet cafes back to the US and it was certainly inexpensive compared to my other options and the calls worked well. It was satisfying to make a 20 minute long international call for the price of a cup of coffee. Fring supports SIP as well as Skype - but I didn't try calling over SIP.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

I also tried Fring. I found it lagged too much, and I just got fed up with it and picked up a real phone.