INQ helps debug VoIP app

ONE OF several VoIP over mobile apps launched last week was AQL's trial service for Nokia E Series handsets. This application now works more cleanly thanks to the INQ.

The principle behind AQL's offering is quite simple. The E Series handsets feature built in support for WiFi (WLAN). So why not run VoIP calls across a WiFi connexion using SIP?

This has proved a relatively simple task for AQL which is a VoIP service provider in the first instance. What it has done is to publicise a trial free facility for owners of the relevant E series Nokia phones.

The INQ duly signed up by sending the word 'nokia' as a text message to 64446. In theory this provides the handset with all the settings it needs for its owner to start making VoIP calls.

However, AQL's software doesn't know the relevant parameters for the user's favourite hot spot. So this information has to be set manually before AQL's software will work properly.

Having made this change, the INQ had difficulty dialling from numbers stored in the handset's addressbook. It turned out the problem lay with storing numbers in international format.

In practice all the numbers in the INQ's addressbook were stored in the '+44' format. Thanks to the INQ's feedback, AQL has now adjusted its systems so that it will now recognise the international dialling format.

The service can potentially save a user a fortune. Instead of routing calls via the cellular network, in the home and the office these calls can be routed via an existing broadband connexion.

AQL's pricing - which kicks in after the trial has concluded - makes VoIP calls far cheaper than using a standard mobile phone network. It costs eight pence per minute to call a mobile phone or one penny per minute to call a land line.

Next on the INQ's list for testing is Vox for Skype which was launched yesterday by Voxlib. It enables mobile phone users to speak to anyone with a Skype phone connexion.

The Voxlib service seems to work best when utilising the paid-for SkypeIn service.

Still on the horizon is Rok Entertainment's Viper service. This aims to provide free VoIP calls over a Bluetooth link between the handset and a broadband enabled PC or laptop.

There seems to be a bit of a delay with the PC side to the Viper software at present. ?

L'INQ
AQL

L'INQ Voxlib

L'INQ Rokviper