VOIP, SIP and the Droid

Some may know that I have Droid now. I was on AT&T and the phone that I had was having issues and so was the coverage/service. So after some research I decided to go the Verizon/Droid route even though I really wanted the Iphone. I will have to say that I am very happy with both the Droid and the service. Coverage seems to be much better in the areas of Texas that I frequent which just happens to include my home so I am not looking back.

So as work is allowing me a bit of time, I have started playing, ok testing is really what I meant, with apps on the Droid. One of these I am just starting to look at is sipdroid.

We use an Asterisk VOIP server for work and I have a softphone at my home office. So naturally I am "tethered" to the computer on phone calls when working in the office. I thought, wouldn't it be nice to have something "cordless" so I could walk around. Now there are SIP phones out there for purchase but I really didn't want another piece of hardware to purchase and have on my desk. So I looked at apps for my Droid, no rooting required, and came across sipdroid.

It was very easy to install on the phone via market. Since I am somewhat knowledgeable on void setup, I admin the asterisk server, it was no problem to set up the app to use our server. First test was to set the app to use wlan only and low and behold it worked great both dialing out and receiving calls. No Verizon minutes used that way since it was wlan. Now there are settings in it to use 3g network and I thought what happens if I want receive or send calls that way like I am out in the field. Low and behold, that works very well also. That is convenient since I can set the phone to do it, don't have to mess with follow me or other settings on the phone server and can send or receive calls either via cell or voip on the Droid as I choose.

Since I am just starting with this then there is more exploration/testing to do. But I have to say I am impressed initially with the way this is going. Along with that and me being the network sort of dude I am, I can see more and more use of our services in the future by our customers. Ok, some may say that is a bit over the hill for the rural user but I would say look where we were last year in use and look at us now. What a change!

I will try this a bit more and let y'all know how it goes.

tk