TWIN: Neuf Starts Voice Service over GSM / Wifi

Neuf Telecom, an ADSL and fiber Internet service provider in France has started a fixed line voice service replacement offer via GSM and Wifi enabled phones. The difference to UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Acccess) services that use Wifi/ADSL to connect back to the wireless network, their solution is a true VoIP over Wifi solution, (probably) using naked SIP over Wifi. For the GSM part of their service they use SFR’s mobile network. For them, UMA does not make sense as they are a fixed line operator and do not have a mobile network. According to their FAQ, voice calls initiated over a Wifi network to fixed line numbers in France and a number of other countries are included in the monthly subscription fee. Further, the FAQ says the mobile can be reached both at home and outside via it’s mobile number but doesn’t mention anything about being reachable with a fixed line number while attached to Wifi. So it looks like VoIP over Wifi is only used for outgoing calls for the moment. Let’s see if they are bold enough to add Voice Call Continuity (VCC) to their offer to allow seamless roaming between GSM and Wifi and a fixed line number to be reachable for an acceptable price. Unlike most UMA services that can just make use of Wifi access points allowed by the network operator this solution works over any Wifi access point that has been configured in the phone, i.e. also from abroad. Very nice! I’d like to get one of those phones into my hands to see how well the integration of the service has been made into the GSM phones they offer for the service.