Mobile VoIP

By the fall of 2005 I had been using Vonage for a couple of years and had really come to appreciate the flexibility of VoIP but was looking to combine that flexibility with the features of my mobile phone. Then Nokia announced the first E series phones, all of which had native SIP (session initiation protocol) applications, and I knew I had found the device for which I had been looking. I purchased my first E series (and first Smartphone), an E60, in May of 2006 and immediately started experimenting with VoIP. I say experimenting because there was almost no information available on how to setup an E series phone for Internet telephony and we were all very much experimenting. Within a few weeks, we discovered the correct setup information only to find that all of our calls were disconnected after 30 seconds. The initial SIP stack used by Nokia on their E series phones could not handle NAT (network address translation) Traversal. That is, the phones had no way to maintain a connection across the Internet to the connected phone and could only be used on the inside of a firewall. Fortunately, we found one company, VoIPtalk (see SIP Profile below), that used reverse NAT detection to overcome this deficiency in the Nokia SIP stack.

VoIPtalk SIP Profile:

Profile name: VoIPtalk
Service Profile: IETF
Default Access point: *your wifi access point*
Public user name: sip:voiptalk_ID@voiptalk.org
Use compression: No
Registration: On demand
Use security: No

Proxy server

Proxy server address: sip:217.14.132.172
Realm: 217.14.132.172
User name: voiptalk_ID
Password: *your voiptalk password*
Allow loose routing: Yes
Transport Type: TCP Port:5065 ------ not 5060

Registrar Server
Registrat serv. addr.: sip:voiptalk.org
Realm: voiptalk.org
User name: voiptalk_ID
Password: *your voiptalk password*
Transport Type: TCP
Port:5060

VoIPtalk provided very good quality VoIP calling services but their prices were a little high, not much different than conventional land lines for calls to Eastern Europe, which is my primary calling destination.

Then in September of 2006, Nokia released version 2 firmware for the E60, 61, and 70. This new firmware incorporated a new version of the SIP stack that included STUN (Simple Traversal of UDP through Network Address Translators) to facilitate NAT translation. This removed the previous E series Internet Telephony limitation and opened the door to a large variety of VoIP Service Providers. At this point Truphone emerged as a real leader in Internet Telephony for Nokia E series phones. Unlike other VoIP providers, Truphone was designed specifically for Nokia mobile phones and, instead of manually inputting a SIP profile, Truphone developed a wizard application that automatically and quickly downloads the necessary SIP information. I have been using Truphone for nearly 2.5 years and have found them to be an excellent VoIP provider. They offer great rates for calls within the USA and good rates (but not always the best rates) for calls to the rest of the world. In addition, Truphone to Truphone calls are free, allowing me to talk regularly to my old college buddy in Stockholm. However, I’m still stuck with calls to Eastern Europe being not very much cheaper that standard land line rates (however new rates just announced by Truphone are much better). This is where Sipgate (see Sipgate SIP Profile below) comes in to play. I first heard of Sipgate from a forum member on My-Symbian.com and have found them to consistently have the best rates of any VoIP Provider for calls to Eastern Europe. AT&T charges $0.32/minute for calls to Ukraine, Vonage and Truphone charge $0.16/minute for the same call but Sipgate only charges $0.08/minute.

Sipgate SIP Profile:

Profile name: Sipgate
Service Profile: IETF
Default Access point: *your wifi access point*
Public user name: sip:Sipgate_username@sipgate.co.uk
Use compression: No
Registration: On demand
Use security: No

Proxy server

Proxy server address: sip: sipgate.co.uk
Realm: sipgate.co.uk
User name: Sipgate_username
Password: Sipgate password
Allow loose routing: Yes
Transport Type: UDP
Port: 5060

Registrar Server
Registrar serv. addr.: sip: sipgate.co.uk
Realm: sipgate.co.uk
User name: Sipgate_username
Password: Sipgate password
Transport Type: UDP
Port:5060

Currently, I use Truphone for calling in the USA while I’m at the office or home (I also use Truphone while traveling and always make certain that my hotel has broadband Internet connectivity), I use my regular mobile number when I’m away from home or the office, and I use Sipgate for calls to Eastern Europe. When I’m in Europe, I buy a local SIM card. Therefore, my Nokia E90 always has at least 3 phone numbers with which it in associated: my regular mobile number from AT&T in Dallas, TX, my London, UK Sipgate number, and my Truphone number in Seattle, WA. This provides great functionality and has greatly reduced my international long distance expences, which used to run as high as $2000/month to less than $100/month now. The use of Truphone has also reduced my use of mobile minutes from about 800 minutes/month to about 50 minutes/month.