New Skype Phones

Robert Poe on June 14, 2007

You're on a business trip, and after a successful lunch meeting you have to make a quick call to the office to confirm the deal. You duck into a coffee shop or hotel lobby, fire up your laptop, log onto a hotspot, plug in a headset, launch Skype and finally make your connection. Anything to avoid dollar-a-minute cellular roaming charges. But while your boss, client or potential acquirer might be impressed with your penny pinching skills, you’ve actually wasted more dollars' worth of time than you’ve saved in cellular minutes.

If this situation rings a bell, we've got just the phones for you. They don't all fit the emergency business call scenario but they all let you make Skype calls without a PC while letting you awe your client, acquirer or even spouse with your ability to be stingy in style.

We'll start with the easiest to use: The Belkin WiFi Phone for Skype and the Netgear SPH101 WiFi Phone both work over open wifi networks, no computer required. They let you see your Skype contacts on color LCD screens, detect their presence, and do most of the things you can with your Skype soft phone, including making SkypeOut calls.

They also share one shortcoming. Because they don't have built-in web browsers, you can't use them at just any old commercial wifi hotspot requiring login and authentication. You can, however, use them at specific ones. Belkin has a deal with Boingo, and Netgear with T-Mobile, allowing you to access those providers' respective hotspots (at least in the U.S.) directly from the phones as long as you have an account with them.

If for some reason you're stuck in your hotel room try the Panasonic KX-WP1050 wifi phone. It also works with Skype over open wifi networks and not at commercial hotspots. But in this case it doesn't need to because it comes with its own hotspot. A wireless travel router included as part of an "Executive Travel Kit" plugs into the Ethernet port of your wired hotel room.

That lets you make Skype calls while walking around with the handset -- there being nothing worse than sitting next to the nightstand while trying to think on your feet. It also lets you access the Internet through your laptop's wifi capability -- there being nothing worse than sitting on a bed trying to type on a computer tethered to a cable. The combined set, complete with handy carrying case, will set you back $360, so you better spend a lot of time on the road to justify it.

The Philips VOIP841 lets you set an example of frugality for your family. It's a DECT cordless phone with a base station that connects both to an Ethernet port and a conventional phone jack. It lets you make both Skype and PSTN calls. And at $150, it could pay for itself in fairly short order.

If you get totally addicted to Skype and want to bring it to your office in style, wait until August. Then you'll be able to buy a sleek desk phone called the Ipevo Solo. The Solo has all the features of good IP business phones, including color LCD display, echo cancellation, optimized acoustic design and speakerphone functionality.

source : voip-news.com