Wireless VoIP (wVoIP)

Also known as voice over wireless (VOW) and VoWiFi

Wireless communication and VoIP have developed in roughly the same time frame and been popularized at roughly the same time. Technically, WiFi is an Internet protocol but the adaptation of Voice over Wireless (aka Voice over WiFi or VoWiFi) by small or medium sized business is somewhat complex.

Despite the appearance of having been made for each other, from the perspective of network serving, wireless and VoIP have often been segregated in their deployment. Their use together ought to be intuitive, especially for business. A number of companies, including Intel and Cisco have made some preliminary inroads into this market, working to integrate these two telecommunications technologies.

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The advantages to the convergence of this twain are numerous, of course, but they would include:

Increased mobility of employees, able to teleconference, for example, as they walk around the office.
A unification of multiple communications, including voice, email and IM across all devices (phones, network computers, PDAs, etc.)
Dramatic reductions in cellular, long distance and conferencing costs.

The problems of combining wireless and VoIP

The problem is that, what on paper is intuitive is in practice difficult and challenging to converge. In fact, one of the problems for most who would aspire to do so is that both of these technologies are still changing dramatically and dynamically and apps that attempt to cross them are in danger of being obsolete before they even go to market.

Another prohibition within this environment is the anticipation of the needs of business: wireless access points must be deployed with the density and range required with any eye on appropriate value for companies.

Uses of Wireless VoIP

An installation of wireless VoIP at Dartmouth College drew attention as far back as 2003. The fact that this installation remains noteworthy provides a demonstration of the limits still placed on this technology; it remains a noteworthy use of voice over wireless.

Cisco’s model 7920 is a phone with wifi capability.

Pulver’s WiSiP is a wireless VoIP phone.

DingoTel provides a walkie-talkie that can be “pushed to talk” and this usable over IP. You can find these at your local BestBuy.