wifi enabled smartphone

[minus-sign]

Okay, I've basically gotten ticked with my local cellular service providers (all 2 of them). What I want to do is get a prepaid minutes deal and use Skype for most of my phone calls when I'm near a network (which is my friends' houses, my house, school--you know, pretty much everywhere other than in my car going to one of those places). if i'm out and about, away from a network, thats what the prepaid plan is for.

Easy enough to do right? All i need is a copy of skype lite on a Mobile phone and I'm good to go.

my problem is that my phone does not have wifi capability. it doesn't have windows mobile or any other OS either. Its pretty much one of those old phones that is...just a phone:eek:

I'm looking for a smartphone. I'd like it to be windows mobile so I can do a little document work and some websurfing and what not and because i know that skype lite will work on windows mobile without half a dozen other things running in there eating the battery life.

Features i want/need:
wifi (obviously)
qwerty keyboard
unlocked
OS w/ known skype compatibility.
thats pretty much it, tbh.

Budget (without a plan) is $200.

I was considering a Cingular 8521. Someone suggested a blackberry, but the only deals for them require you subscribe to a plan. I'd honestly rather buy used phones for $75 each month than subscribe to one of those plans.

[awaj]

my parents had done some looking with Verizon, apparently, you need a plan to get a phone, and you need to have web in the phone plan to get it. There is always Ebay, where you can get smart phones with no plan, I've no clue if they work with out a plan though

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As far as I know its just a matter of getting an unlocked phone and sim card that works for a local service provider and fits the phone. The best provider around here used to be Altel, but they've sold their setup to another company and they are (PG way of putting things) REALLY REALLY BAD!

Next best service is Verizon (ugh). Won't have service in the woods, but in towns I'd be okay.

There are a lot of phones you can buy without a plan, you just pay through the nose to do so. EX: i wanted a BB curve. A friend told me you could get them for $50 and I was shaking my head. he was right, you can...with a plan. But you can also get them without a plan. you just have to pay $500+

With a Windows Mobile OS and wifi I know I can set it up to accept network connections without using a service plan's, frankly, limited availibility.

[minus-sign]

Lets make this quick.

First, i did some shopping for eyecandy. Picked out the phones I liked and i'll be linking 2 of them below.

next, i went to http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/ and checked out what frequencies are used by my local carriers. no big surprise; there are two. 850 and 1900.

Note: THIS IS A BIG DEAL IF YOU EVER WANT A PLAN ON YOUR WIFI PHONE. if you don't have the proper frequencies for your providers, theres no way they can (forget about if they will or won't) help you.

I then went through the phones i liked the most before, (and did a little more surfing armed with the new frequencies) and found two that I really like in my pricerange that support both 850 and 1900. they are;

A Pharos Traveler 619 Unlocked GSM Smart Phone (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4416990&csid=ITD&body=MAIN) and this NOKIA E63 Red 3G (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875205156&NM_MC=OTC-fROOGLE)

i chose these ultimately because 1) they are new and 2) they are being offered by reputable vendors (no snickers about calling Tiger "reputable" please). These are big deals in my book. new phones are, well, new. they haven't been dropped in water, thrown out of a moving car when someone's BFF talked smack behind yo back ya know??? and if they have damage, there's usually a warranty you can get with them--for more money--to protect your investment.

The other side is that reputation. i know where I can go to take that tigerdirect phone back. i also know that newegg honors their warranties. on the other hand, i could get an uber phone from ebay and not know its history, have no customer service and well, theres a reason why "let the buyer beware' is a cliche.

Even better, get some off the wall Asian cellphone bot for half the price of either of these, and never see my money or my phone again. Not good.

i'm leaning towards the Nokia for looks and warranty ($240 with a 2 year. sweetness? I like to think so but its still over budget). I've never used or know anyone who has used Simbian OS, but reviews are good and I've seen people talk about using Skype lite on it already.

Now; how this is going to work:

With an Unlocked phone that can run on the frequencies I need for local providers, I can get a prepaid minute plan from one of them and avoid a lot of the extra charges (and hassles) that tend to come with cell phones. Since I spend a lot of my time in wifi hotspots, I'll use Google Voice to call both my cell phone and my SkypeOut number at the same time. that way, I can use Skype to answer any calls when I'm in a hotspot or if I'm not in range of a network (and I still want to talk to whoever is on the line) I can burn a few minutes from my cell plan.

[awaj]

you don't happen to have a link to some thread describing how to set up google voice with skype, do you?

[minus-sign]

you just need a SkypeOut number for your account, far as i know.

Heres one guy thats already done it:
http://www.lucafiligheddu.com/2009/03/how-to-connect-google-voice-to-skype.html
he used gizmo though. I'm going to try to cut out that particular middle man.

[minus-sign]

I've continued looking into the phones i chose and my local providers. its not just the frequencies as i suspected, but the technology too.

I have only 1 GSM carrier in my area, and they have limited range. For Americans, WCDMA is not a good technology for cellphones. Looking for CDMA2000 in the states improves your chances of having a carrier...and from my searches limits your choices on smartphones.

[minus-sign]

I've continued my research doggedly on this subject and thought someone would be interested in reading what I found (at the very least, I will be interested when my CD opens at the end of this month :p). There are actually 2 carriers in my area (or soon will be) that use GSM 1900 for their cell phone plans; AT&T and T-Mobile.

Real reason for this post is that i've learned (to my regret) that Skype, even the lite version, will end up either charging me minutes on my carrier somehow or only work as a beefy IM on mobiles with Skype-to-Skype calling. Thats what I've read anyway. Very dishheartening to hear that a program I've so greatly endorsed to others and stood by (yes, I was there for the crappy dropping-every-other-call-to-land-lines betas) has not taken such a logical step into the mobile arena.

I need to choose a different VoiP service if I'm to make a go of this whole mobile WiFi venture. I've done more searching and found this writeup comparing VoiPs:
http://gigaom.com/2008/06/03/mobile-voip/

Its a tossup between Gizmo5 (yes, the middleman I'd planned to avoid) and truphone. I've also tried a few others, like iCall for PC, and wasn't overly impressed with voice quality. Of the two, truphone appears purpose built for mobile VoiP on a wifi capable smartphone and was written for Symbian, the OS i'll probably be using. One more week and I can access my CD. Then I guess we'll see where things really stand.

[awaj]

gizmo5 works well with Google Voice (at the moment...) I've yet to use it from my computer, but I will soon...