New Wifi phone makes Skype calls from any FON hotspot! [2 EDITS]
With this wifi phone, FON tells us, Foneros can connect for free at any FON hotspot worldwide to make Skype calls!
Few details are given at this time, but the above picture shows the WSKP100 package which SMC is allready selling in the U.S.A. for $159.99. The handset appears to be identical with the NETGEAR WiFi Phone for Skype, which sells for $249.99 alone! The good ole El Cheapo (La Fonera) router is shipped separately, presumably direct from FON.
The Skype client appears to be embedded in the SMC handset, and comes with 500 SkypeOut minutes, and 12 months of voicemail. Calls to other Skype phones are always free; buy one for yourself and another for each of your loved ones. It could pay itself off in less than 3 months!
We’re curious about what mechanism this phone uses to authenticate with the FON hotspots, and are awaiting reply from Steve Ross, who moderates FON’s English-language blog. Similar phones by Netgear and SMC (probably the same Accton phone rebadged) make no mention of a built in web-browser, so we wonder if 1La Foneras are allowing Skype connections without FON login, or is 2Skype providing some kind of authentication service to the FON network for registered Skype-Foneros? 3Are free hotspot connections only for Linus Foneros, 4or is it for any Fonero? 5Any Skype customer? 6Are the free hotspot connections permanent, or only for a limited time?
One further worry is whether the handset can 7make it’s Skype calls when another, non-FON hotspot is available? Our fear is that this handset has been limited in some way. Stay tuned for further details.
11/23 EDIT: Per “new_palace_centre” in Fon’s English-language board, we have news of how the browserless handset logs onto hotspots which have login pages, including Fon hotspots. Per SMC, the handset itself has a built-in list of hotspot networks that it detects and logs into automatically. This suggests that either a Fonero needs to store their username and password on the phone, or that there is a generic Fon account that everyone logs with. More to come when we hear of it!
Great job, fon!
EDIT: Fon has announced that the SMC handset does not actually have the ability to log into Fon hotspots yet. SMC and Skype have updated their advertising to reflect this retraction. Handset owners may still connect via their private SSID, or through any open hotspot. Once Fon gets their “smart client” working, handset owners must still agree to join Fon’s movement, register that “free” La Fonera and maintain the router for a year as a Linus for “free” connections worldwide.
EDIT: Fontastic.org blog has posted two videos of the SMC handset being demonstrated: http://www.fontastic.org/fon/smc-skype-phone-arrived-first-impression-video/
ATTN Martin Versavsky and Steve Ross: I’m being refused Trackbacks to your URLs. My hit counter suggests that I have had at least 575 hits since Oct 15, so you might wish to permit my links in the future.
http://us.accessories.skype.com/direct/skypeusa/itemdetl.jsp?prod=3394
http://blog.fon.com/en/archive/gadgets/fon-and-skype-launch-wifi-phone.html
http://web.fon.com/backend_blogs/mt-tb.cgi/943
November 18th, 2006 at 10:19 am
just saw this on the Skype blog
http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2006/11/the_skype_wifi_phone_package.html
looks like it might not roam, which is a little bit of a shame, not that I personally think roaming has much value.
November 18th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
This looks like the exact same phone built by Accton that is in the SMC/FON package. The FON handset will “connect for free” to any FON hotspot worldwide (plus Skype charges), but this handset will not work with any hotspot requiring a browser.
My conclusion is that 1)the SMC/FON handset is only a lookalike on the outside, or 2)has custom firmware including a FON logon app inspired by the one joachim.buechse made, or 3)there may be some cross-registration between Fon and Skype that may allow all Skypers free FON hotspot access.
My comments in Fon’s English blog with these questions remains unapproved and unanswered, though it’s moderator has emailed me in the intrim about an unrelated matter. I suppose he’s waiting for an answer from his contacts.
November 20th, 2006 at 3:32 am
not entirely unexpected, but still a bit disappointing, the blog has been updated:
http://blog.fon.com/en/archive/gadgets/fon-and-skype-launch-wifi-phone.html#comments
The crazy thing is that it would be technically possible to let them in by changing the fonera software to recognise the phones and let them in, or by changing the phones to do a background automatic login to Fon when they see a hotspot starting with FON_
November 20th, 2006 at 11:21 am
Alan: After your comment in fon’s blog, Matthias Seifert tells us he is only able to get the handset to work with the private SSID of his La Fonera. This is the arrangement I feared of when FON announced the earlier WiFi handset with FON router built into it’s recharge base. I never saw an answer from FON to that question either.
It is my hope that the new SMC handset has a FON-logon ability, or that there is a router firmware upgrade that permits Skype customers to bypass web logins. Otherwise, what we have here is just a WiFi handset that is not FON-aware at all. It would therefore only work with an open hotspot or router which it has a WEP/WPA key for, like the “private” SSID of a La Fonera.
November 27th, 2006 at 9:09 am
The one thing that has no been mentioned yet - despite the fact parts of my post have been surmised..
The SMC phone is capable of logging in to at least ONE UK WiFi Hotspot network (The Cloud) which is a network that requires web-based authentication (ie it requires you to use a web-browser to login)
So for those people who are a bit upset that the phone isn’t at this moment capable of connecting to FON access points - I just want to reassure you that at least one UK network has managed to incorporate the SMC phone onto their network.
Also note The Cloud only mentions the SMC phone - NOT ANY OTHER WIFI SKYPE PHONES - ie Belkin
Hope this helps….
Andy