I’m excited by the prospects of mobile VOIP using my ADP1 and Sipdroid.
Sipdorid has its draw backs, the main one being development has been pushed to interoperate with PBXes as opposed to any old VSP or even my Asterisk box at home but thats what you get and I can’t bitch to much about something that works (through PBXes) and is free.
So, today I signed up with a provider that re-sells (among other things) Optus 3G data. I can’t get over how cheap (at least for Australia) the data is. They are charging 1.5c per MB of data. At this rate it makes sense to ditch my current MVNO (who re-sells Vodafone) and go with the new mob. Exetel, who I am switching to, are also an ISP here in Australia and I like their style, its cheap and they don’t piss about with the facts. Its kind of ‘here are our prices and this is how we will do you over, if you don’t like it then piss off, and, if we don’t like you we’ll also tell you to piss off’ which is an interetsing but kind of likeable quality in the business that they are in.
The man that runs the show, John Linton, has a blog and his outlook on things is what tipped me to try them out, its refreshing to see these kind of comments in business. Here is a perfect example.
So, we’ll see how it pans out. I’ll be going VOIP for all my calls (when possible) and text messages also using a VSP. Lets hope the Optus service and network here in Perth doesn’t let me down.
EDIT: I’m crapping my self now that this will not work. Sipdroid only supports the G711 codec which is a monster when it comes to bandwidth consumption. I wish it supported G729 – this could be a short experiment ending up in failure due to Sipdroid and the Andorid OS. Please, please Optus network deliver me a fast stable 3G connection.
I’m very interested to know, did you get it to work in the end?
How does the PBXes thing work? Does the need to go through to the US (I assume) make the call lag noticeably?
Finally I looked at the Exetel plan and I am a bit confused if the $5 connection fee is in addition to the data usage, or if it is a $5 min fee sort of deal.
Anyway hope it all worked out ok for you
I have not yet received my new Sim card so can’t vouch for the Optus service, however, I have already tried this set up on Vodafone network and the call quality if fair (but only made one call so far). I am still concerned with the G711 codec issued but a mate of mine at work uses Optus on his iphone and based on his speed tests there seems to be enough bandwidth (at least in download – he didn’t do an upload test).
PBXes appears to have several servers spread around the world. The one I use is in Japan. Once I have used it more than a few times I’ll report what the lag is like.
I am going on Exetel’s WM-A plan. The $5 appears to be an ‘access’ fee for want of a better word, ie, there are no included calls or data, everything is on top of the $5.
I hope it works well. I just wish somehow G729 was available on the Android platform.