Fri, 07 Oct 2005

Motorola DTR + VoIP?!

Motorola has a very interesting product that recently hit the market...it targets the business radio market and solves a very common problem: bad VHF/UHF radio coverage in high rises and campus environments. The solution: Motorola DTR digital radios.

The product uses FHSS in the unlicensed 900MHz band, and boy are those radios sensitive. They shoot through about 20 vertical floors in our high rise, and even work in the elevator. I can walk around downtown Bellevue, and the things still function normally.

The radios are very neat because they mimic the UI and functionality of Motorola's iDEN system -- complete with the same exact push to talk sounds we all hate hearing from those noisy Nextel phones. In addition to having various radio groups, the phones support text messaging, and sneaky features like remote deactivation (in case someone walks out with a radio), and remote mike key up functions (so you can spy on your employees). And the best part -- they are decentralized, and peer-to-peer.

But the problem is, Motorola is so hot and bothered about how great these FHSS radios perform, that they refuse to sell repeaters and other systems -- there simply is no need for it, they say on their website.

This is a problem.

Our company is currently in the process of obtaining various spaces in the Bellevue area...in other adjacent high-rises...and its not working all that hot anymore. It seems that inter-highrise communication is very difficult and just about impossible.

Not to mention they would like to extend this radio system into our remote offices around the United States. How cool would it be to key up an unlicensed radio in Bellevue to talk to someone in Boston?

DTR radios have mic and speaker jacks, the mic activating via switch in series. This is very similar to my handheld ham radio....a ham radio I can interface with IRLP -- an amateur radio VoIP software package made especially for this task.

The idea is simple -- grab two PC's, put them into whatever locations I wish to setup a point to point link with, and run IRLP. When audio comes in on VoIP, it will key up and transmit locally. When audio comes in on the radio, the PC will transmit VoIP audio to the remote endpoint(s).

Why Motorola can't offer a VoIP linking or simple repeater facility is beyond me. Or at least a PC cable and API so I wouldn't have to hack this together. These radios have a lot of potential..and its too bad I have to hack this garbage together to get them to work.

[/voip] permanent link

WiFi VoIP Devices

Over the last couple of months, for reasons id rather not disclose, I have been very interested in WiFi VoIP handsets -- in particular, handsets that offer 3G-like user experiences. 802.11b/g camera phones, java phones, with text messaging abilities are the most interesting to me. And no...these phones are not for use with hotspots...i need them to roam.

There are a lot of these products on the market, but almost no information is available. Maybe people are simply not buying them?! The only product that I really see reviewed is the POS ZyXEL, and its OEM variants, like the UTStarcom (yes, even the ZyXEL is an OEM). The first version would lock onto a ONE BSSID and THATS IT (AKA, no roaming AT ALL) -- and now I am seeing reports that the new version of this handset does the same short sighted thing again. One solution is to configure each of your AP's into different SSIDs, and hope the thing hands off (which it doesnt without killing the voice) once it cant see its previous AP. This is very bad. I will not be looking at this product.

So here I am, without really any information on the following products: