Graves On SOHO VoIP

I find that I’m simply drawn to novel and innovative approaches to problems. In the VUC post-call ramble this past week Michael White of E4Technologies described something that’s stuck in my mind as being pretty cool.

He was working with a large-company-who-shall-remain-nameless on a very significant installation. It was going along well. They had selected a line of SIP hard phones from a large, well-known  manufacturer, and were generally happy with the results. That is, happy with one exception; they didn’t like the performance of  the speakerphone on their chosen model of desk phone.

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Yes, it’s true, I’ve been a little distracted. Recently a lot of my focus has been work related, as I’ve been on a project in Baltimore the past two weeks. During the time I’ve been staying at a Doubletree near Johns Hopkins University. It’s a quiet place with a good restaurant, including a nice wine list.

Sadly, cellular service in the area is spotty. I’ve had no T-Mobile coverage in my room. That leaves me relying upon VoIP over the hotel Wifi or my Sprint Mifi. Happily, those have been decent options.

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In mid-July I traveled to the UK, visiting my employer’s head office in Cambridge. Being away from my home office is in some ways a drag. I’m so accustomed to being in control of my local network, which is certainly not the case when I’m abroad. Suffice it to say that I can’t use anything VoIP related from within the office LAN at HQ, with the possible exception of Skype.

At the hotel where we typically stay near HQ there is wired internet access provided by Swisscom. It’s a decent service, reasonably fast and reliable. However, at 15 Pounds Sterling (around $22 USD!) per 24-hour period it’s also very dear. To get around some of this cost one of my co-workers loaned me a company issued Vodaphone 3G USB dongle. This was the first time that I’d used one of these little gadgets.

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During last weeks VUC call someone mentioned that there was a new service called UKDDI offering free DIDs in the UK.  They offer ten free numbers from locations all around the UK, where each can be mapped to a SIP URI.

It took a couple of minutes for the utility of this to really sink in. Given that I have a factory full of coworkers in the UK, and I’ll be traveling there this coming week there just has to be something useful that I can accomplish with such a resource.

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Michael White over at E4Strategies has a great deal on Clear One Chat 50 USB speakerphone devices. When used with a suitable soft phone these little gadgets turn any PC into a decent speakerphone. They’re even wideband capable.

I’ve been working up an overview of the various USB speakerphones that I’ve used. The Chat 50 is one of the better ones in the group for desktop use.  Definitely recommended!

I have no connection  to E4 or Clear One, beyond being a happy customer.