Nokia Says: We Didn’t Remove the VoIP

Filed under: mobile phones, nokia, voip - 28 Aug 2008 0:15

Om Malik says: “some of [Nokia's] new handsets, such as the new N78, are not VoIP compatible anymore.” Charlie Schick of Nokia Conversations says the report of the death of VoIP has been groosly exaggerated.

While I haven’t seen the N78 or the N96 up close and personal for more than a minute or two, I’m not surprised that the “upgrade” to S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 “broke” some stuff, or that the VoIP client was “left out” of the phone. Based on past experience with feature pack upgrades, that’s not unusual. (Why does the E71 still have it’s VoIP client, Om? It’s because the E71 is an FP1 device.)

Removing the SIP stack doesn’t make sense. Heck, the carriers themselves use it in some capacities. They may not want you making VoIP calls, but any carrier that implements Kodiak Networks Push-to-Talk service uses–you guessed it–SIP. This includes companies like AT&T, MetroPCS, Telstra, and others.

So TruPhone and the other software vendors that use Nokia’s SIP stack will have to do a little bit of work to get their excellent VoIP over WiFi software working on the newer handsets. It’s par for the course, particularly with feature pack upgrades. Om will get his VoIP and life will go on.

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Tags: nokia, om malik, voip Fnord

10 Comments »

Comment by Markus Göbel's Tech News Comments

It’s not as easy as Nokia is trying to say: There are hundreds or thousands of companies without an own software for mobile VoIP. They just rely on the SIP standard. In Germany it’s GMX, 1&1, Sipgate and the several Betamax daughters. Together they have millions of customers, I am one of them. These people cannot use VoIP on the new Nokia phones. I have always ten or more VoIP providers installed on my Nokia E61i’s SIP client. This way I can always use the cheapest route and leverage free on net calls.

Read it here:
http://www.goebel.net/technews/2008/08/why-truphone-and-gizmo5-applaud-that.html
Comment by Martin Dindos

I have to agree with comment #1. I’m using VOIP on Nokia’s phone via my own asterisk server. How can Nokia expect me to develop my own Internet telephony application so that I can continue to use it? There are simply thousands of small users out there for whom this is beyond what they could do. This will leave them out in cold.

And further comment. Any third party application will hve hard time to match the comfort of integrated symbian UI, where normal and internet calls are integrated together and one push of a button decides which one to make. Just compare this with Fring whose UI is just terrible.
Pingback by No VoIP In New Nokia N-Series Phones? Is Nokia Turning Its Back on MobileVoIP? - GigaOM

[...] this | Comments [...] August 28th, 2008 12:15 AM PT Nokia Says: We Didn’t Remove the VoIP said: [...] Malik says: “some of [Nokia's] new handsets, such as the new N78, are not VoIP [...]
Pingback by Markus Göbel's Tech News Comments

Nseries devices N78 and N96 lack an own SIP client, while Nokia before embraced mobile VoIP on it’s Nseries and Eseries devices. Charlie Schick of Nokia Conversations says the report of the death of VoIP has been “grossly exaggerated” and people likePhoneboy, Gizmo5’s Michael Robertson or the company Truphone are buying that argumentation, although it has its flaws. Truphone, Gizmo5 and Fring must have realized immediately that they are winning from Nokia’s move. That’s why they are holding back their
Comment by Dave

Yup, must say that I totally agree with Markus. It would p*ss me off horribly if future versions of Nokia smart(dumb?)phones wouldn’t support SIP natively anymore. Like Markus, I have several SIP profiles that I use concurrently, and what a hassle it would be with a separate application for each company otherwise (in those cases where the company theoretically would be willing to devote resources to an app).
Pingback by Nokia isn’t ditching VoIP after all! — Alec Saunders SquawkBox

[...] Nokia Says: We Didn’t Remove the VoIP [...]
Comment by PhoneBoy

However, I think Markus and Dave are in the minority here. While there was a time where I would have had 10 VoIP providers on my Nokia device, I don’t anymore. I guess I change phones too often for that to work well

That being said, I understand the frustration. It sounds like the “problem” is only limited to these two handsets.
Comment by Markus Göbel's Tech News Comments

Minority? A small puspin can move a big ass.

Read my answer at:

Markus Göbel’s Tech News Comments: Nokia leaves Asterisk users in the cold
http://www.goebel.net/technews/2008/08/nokia-leaves-asterisk-users-in-cold.html
Pingback by Markus Goebel: Tech News Comments - goebel.net - Letzte Verweise

[...] http://phoneboy.com/2474/nokia-says-we-didnt-remove-the-voip [...]
Comment by PhoneBoy

@Markus I don’t disagree with that. But I also know it will be some future Nseries handsets. Just not those.