A Netbook Phone Experiment

Been a long time - Quick Update

2010-02-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the disappearance - things have gotten crazy around here:

Short update:

- The S5 is a miracle and the whole WiMax phone thing works. Wimax is fast enough and stable enough for crystal clear phone calls.

- Biggest issue in the way? Bluetooth drivers that work with the S5 and vitaero or blubell so I can use it as a phone without a corded headset. I'm working on resolving this and then getting CLEAR again and using it as my primary phone.

- Smaller issue? No inbuilt wimax on the Viliv - so it's either modding time or I find a creative way to tuck the modem away nicely

Pre-ordered a Viliv S5 F-log

2009-08-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

I've reached Korea and am a kilogram lighter having obsoleted my P1510D to my parents. I have purchased instead, a Viliv S5 F-Log which I will use to continue the experiment. Once it arrives, just out of sheer necessity, I will start using it as my phone although with WiFi since I have WiFi access everywhere (I think). If I need to start using WiBro, that will have to be a USB attachment although I am not too concerned since I am planning to carry the device around with a spare battery in a belt pack to stay connected for a full day's worth of work. I hope the device will stand up to being always on and I expect to have to muck around with a low power Linux distro to stay always on without burning a hole through the leather case.

Pics and other info to come next week.

Cheers!

Viliv S5 with WiMAX

2009-07-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Quick update as I get ready for my trip to Korea. After a lot of thinking, I am almost definitely getting myself a Viliv S5 as soon as I can lay my hands on a WiMAX version. I thought there already was one and asked Viliv sales for the model information and I received this:

Hi Vigneshwar,

We are grateful for your interest in viliv S5 Wimax version.viliv has a plan to introduce viliv with integrated Wimax function.At the Computex, Taiwan in June, 2009, Intel was showcasing our viliv S5 with Wimax (Intel’s Wimax module built in).Two cyber girls were up & downloading live video of the show floor through our S5 with Wimax.Please keep your eyes on our products introduction.

Again we thank you for your interest.

Viliv USA Sales

Looks like I'll have to wait a bit before I can get the S5. My mother will be inheriting the P1510, so until the S5 with WiMAX is launched, I'll be using a cheap netbook to supplement my PC while in Korea.

Forum for Wimax as a cell phone

2009-06-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

Matt sent me an e-mail after seeing this on /. with the idea of setting up a forum for using WiMAX and netbooks to substitute your phone. He's set up a nice forum over at Ringing Free Forum where I will also be spending some time and concurrently posting about things I find using.

Of course, time has lately been a premium with my plans for Fall up in the air. I've got a chance to go to Korea (national scale WiMAX FTW! w00t!) in August and I am trying to finalize some details. It will work out wonderfully for the experiment (and me) if this goes through since I'll have the excuse of going to a different country to not carry a phone and in the meantime test out some more appropriate hardware (with in-built WiMAX hopefully) to do the 'experiment' with. More on everything soon!

Planning for WiMAX

2009-06-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

Looking at the available plans from Clear, I noticed that they have a 6/0.5 unlimited plan for 'home' usage available for $40 a month and a 4/0.5 unlimited for 'mobile' usage for $50 a month. Not sure if the different listed bandwidths will make a difference, but seeing as the WiMAX receivers are no different in the router as they are in the USB modem, how can they charge me differently for the interface from my chip to my computer (how would they know/why does it matter)? Hopefully, this is simply an advertising gimmick hoping to get corporate users to sign up for the 'Mobile' plan. I am going to confirm that there aren't any arbitrary terms (like "No more than 3 hops in a day") for the 'home' connection in the ToS when you sign up.The ToS on their website doesn't have anything relevant but it indicates that a lot of the terms of the service will be listed on the 'order confirmation'.

Devices

2009-05-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

Currently, I am not planning on purchasing a dedicated device to serve as an intermediate between my ultraportable and a phone although that is the ultimate goal. Once I can establish that the network works and works well enough, I'll probably move to something with good battery life and portability. the UMID M1 doesn't look too bad as long as you have spare batteries. The n810 WiMAX edition is an abvious alternative. UMPC Portal ought to have a wide range of choices and is an excellent source of information if you are in the netbook/MID/UMPC market.

Edit: Chippy from UMPC Portal recommended the Viliv S5 as a device that may come close to meeting the heavy battery life requirements. I also remembered the Raon Everun and have asked him about its potential to provide a full day's worth of charge especially with an extended battery.

Slashdot comments

2009-05-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

So I posted a story to Slashdot regarding this project and so far, some of the issues brought up have been:

Latency
Might have to live with bad lag ala international phone calls circa 1995. It seems to be out of my control to do anything about the network's characteristics, but hopefully, getting a good adapter should alleviate this to some extent. Let's see if this kills the project.

911
The Google Voice TOS explicitly states:

You acknowledge and understand that Google Voice does NOT currently allow you to access any 911 or similar emergency services (no traditional 911, E911, or similar access to emergency services). You should always have an alternative means of accessing 911 or similar emergency services. Please inform others who use your Google Voice service and devices used to access Google Voice that they must access these numbers directly through a traditional landline or mobile phone. Google Voice is not intended to replace your primary phone service, such as traditional landline or mobile phone.

Let's see if Skype is any better.

Skype is not a replacement for your landline or your mobile phone. Skype does not offer you the ability to call emergency services for help if you are in distress.

Nope. I guess a pre-paid phone should do the trick though.

Battery Life
My ultraportable does give me up to 7 hours of battery life with the extended battery which I'd say will go down to 4-5 hours with Wimax + BT always on. I am guessing most people don't get away from home/work regularly for longer periods. For the occasional time this is the case, pre-paid to the rescue.

Network Coverage
Wimax coverage isn't getting any praise from current users. The solution? Pre-paid.

It increasingly seems as if a pre-paid to fall back on is indispensible. I am definitely hoping that I will only rarely have to use it although it no longer seems to be optional.

First Steps

2009-05-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

To start off, I need to pick a good 'always-on' OS for the laptop. I have a CF to IDE adapter for the HDD which I can use to hack together an SSD. I will need good BT support, so perhaps XP + nLite may be one way to go. I only have 512 megs of Ram which means I should either upgrade or use a light OS. The 'small' Linux flavors (especially ones I can get to run off the RAM - DSL/Puppy) do offer the advantage of lower resource consumption while on, but that depends on which WiMAX card I get and whether I find the right drivers.

The next step would be to configure my setup to a point where I am able to seamlessly use my laptop instead of the phone whenever I have access to WiFi. This will help me configure my laptop to do all I want it to do in addition to handling phone functions. I will also be doing an internship in France between August and December, so this will additionally help me keep my pre-paid phone bills there to a minimum.

This prepares me to get a WiMAX connection and trial run the setup while keeping my current phone alive merely as a safety net. At this point, I'll be able to identify and resolve any issues with battery life, stability of connection and call quality.

The path from there on depends mostly on the results I get. Hopefully, at this point I can dump my phone connection and get a shiny new MID with a built in WiMAX adapter to replace it. Maybe there will be a need to address some issues with the OS to ensure sufficient battery life for the described use. This makes me lean towards using Linux as the OS so that I can work with a bunch of interested parties to create a 'remix' that will serve the outlined needs.

We'll see...

The Experiment - A Netbook Phone

2009-05-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

I've decided to explore the possibility of using a netbook/MID as a phone while eschewing the services of a cellphone provider. Now that Atlanta (where I live) has WiMAX from Clear, I ought to be connected everywhere, 24x7 to the internet (once I sign up). Theoretically, this should mean that I will be able to use my netbook as a cell phone. Of course, there are some very real issues to overcome and I am simply putting this experiment together to see if it is something that is realistically possible. And I will blog about it.

There are some significant issues that need to be resolved before I can get connected. Once I am reliably connected, I will move on to other issues like usability, feasibility and other associated issues.

The different questions I want to answer in the coming months would be:

Can I use the internet to provide me with reliable mobile telephony?
Is it cost effective?
What hardware is needed to use a WiMAX service to provide internet telephony?
What stands in the way of this being indistinguishable from a traditional cell-phone service?

I am a student and am almost always broke. I do not intend to buy expensive hardware for the experiment unless absolutely necessary. Which means I will be using somewhat sub-optimal hardware. Hopefully, what I have on hand is sufficient for the experiment.

Fujitsu P1510D
OK. So I don't really have a netbook or a MID. The P1510D is close enough and is essentially the same as a netbook in terms of its form factor and performance. I have two extended batteries for this machine each of which should give me 6+ hours of juice with always on bluetooth and WiMAX connection while the screen is sparingly used. To emulate the typical netbook, I will attempt to minimize the use of the second battery and the car charger.

Bluetooth headset
I have a Motorola S9 lying around here somewhere that I'll use since the P1510D has Bluetooth.

Grandcentral/Google Voice
This gives me an unchanging number that people can call me on. Google Voice seems like it will allow me to make calls as well.

Clear WiMAX
Clear has now deployed its 4G WiMAX network in Atlanta (where I live) and I will be able to use it to stay connected to the internet.

The biggest concerns I have are related to the switch are how my contacts will respond to this switch on my part and if I will be able to stay on top of my phone call/voicemail volume due to teething issues I will undoubtedly face and the time overhead associated with returning and handling calls. When I cancel my phone connection after about a month of transition, I will probably get myself a prepaid phone to make and receive calls with when I leave town for any reason.