Vonage teamed up with gear makers Linksys and Netgear in August to make VoIP service available through Wi-Fi equipment. Two major VoIP providers are taking steps to unwire internet-based phoning, traditionally a service tethered by wires.
But offering wi-fi service also means air travellers could use voice over IP (VoIP) phones and applications such as Skype to make voice calls - a development sure to vex seatmates. Frontier Airlines, which ranks 11th or 12th in size among carriers...
And PC-based media centres and residential VoIP technologies are heading into Gartner's 'trough of disillusionment', where technologies fail to live up to over-inflated expectations and become unfashionable.
It now seems to be the case that if there is a phone line, there is wi-fi, and I have to actively search out places where there is neither. For the most part there is always a mobile signal in these places.
Richard Webb, directing analyst for wireless at Infonetics Research, said the appeal of converging mobile, wireless LAN and VoIP services into one device is driving wi-fi phone adoption, especially for dual-mode handsets.
BT has reportedly abandoned, for the moment, attempts to market its dual-mode wi-fi handsets to consumers, despite the relative success of the device among business customers. BT does not have its own cellular network - it resells a Vodafone...