grind

The way it is right now, if you want to make voice calls anywhere (within coverage area), you buy a cell phone from a carrier, sign a contract agreeing to pay for voice service, and use their towers to make your call. Calling other cell phones, landlines, etc. all use your minutes, unless you have a plan that gives exemptions. Text messages are a "luxury" item and are covered with addon plans and monthly premiums. Access to internet, email, etc. costs more monthly depending on your plan.

However, with companies like Clear offering wireless broadband for use in computers, you could access the internet remotely with any computer. Using Skype or Google Voice, you could also make voice calls to anyone also using it, or landlines (for a fee with Skype.. I believe they charge per minute and you simply put money in your account to use, similar to a payphone). Theoretically, you could carry your laptop or netbook around with you, access the internet via Clear, and make voice calls whenever you want with free programs via VoIP.

What I hope to see in the future is a death of modern cell phone carriers. Their industry setup is archaic and outdated, IMO. The notion of having a cell phone tied to a specific network is a relic of the past, since there are plenty of phones available (overseas) which are compatible with multiple networks. The hardware is virtually identical, the only difference is in the firmware that is loaded onto the phones, anchoring them for use on specific towers. The gap between phones, pda's, and personal computers is nearly vanished at this point; don't you think we should embrace this convergence for what it is?

In a perfect world, we would buy cell phones from the manufacturers, not the carriers. The phones would all operate on the same network, the internet. Phone calls will be made with VoIP through Skype, Google Voice, or similar. Phones like the Droid already come with such software installed; it wouldn't be a large hop to make for most people. Charging for usage of bandwidth specifically for making calls to other users on the network will be illegal (via net neutrality) but calls to landlines would still cost money.

That way, consumers would only need to subscribe to a provider of mobile broadband (i.e. Clear) to satisfy all of their internet and calling needs. Consumers could also keep their existing broadband at home if they so chose (for better speed, bandwidth, etc.) but could also forgo such and use only the mobile internet (if within coverage area). Am I that crazy to imagine such?

Thoughts?

03-accent-03

I'm sick of paying so damned much per month for phones...

187sks

I don't think it'll go to mobile broadband VOIP anytime soon, because the required bandwidth is a lot higher than for a traditional cell call. Without large upgrades to the cell tower infrastructure you would only be able to call from a fraction of the locations you could call now.

The problem is that the cell towers don't and probably never will directly connect you to the internet, so some company is always going to charge for access use to the tower. Until the gov't installs access points on all towers that route directly to the internet we will still have a system similar to what we have now. I'm hoping my next phone has WiFi so that I can talk/text/surf at WiFi hotspots for free. Most of the phones I'm looking at can do at least some of that.

Visionz

Tmobile has been doing stuff with VoIP and WiFi for a couple of years now. smile.gif

i8acobra

Magic Jack just showed a device at CES that has the cell companies threatening to sue. It allows you to use your cell inside your house as a VoIP phone without using any cell minutes. This means, you can go from having a 1000 minute plan to a 250 minute plan if most of your calls are made from home. This means less money for cell companies.

ereeves116

Floyd, addressing the issue of using wi-fi for voice. I used to think that when I was on wi-fi I was using voice over it and not the network. That was with T mobile and whether it was placebo effect or not I felt like calls were clearer.

I'm on verizon now and was told that no matter what, voice is ALWAYS over the network which means wifi won't save you from using minutes

03-accent-03

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (i8acobra @ Jan 29 2010, 11:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Magic Jack just showed a device at CES that has the cell companies threatening to sue. It allows you to use your cell inside your house as a VoIP phone without using any cell minutes. This means, you can go from having a 1000 minute plan to a 250 minute plan if most of your calls are made from home. This means less money for cell companies.</div>
That 250 minute plan will cost the same as the 1000 at that point =\