Taipei also to go WiFi-phone with Taipei Easy Call

It would seem you can't keep a good use for a good municipal WiFi project down. Not long after news broke about Anaheim taking telephony to the 2.4GHz airwaves by way of EarthLink's newly deployed WiFi network, more news broke that ten companies are standing behind a new Taiwanese initiative called Taipei Easy Call. From some accounts it sounds suspiciously like a UMA rollout, but apparently the Taipei city government plans to use WiFi VoIP calling service to replace more expensive fixed-line service at hundreds of schools, and city offices by as early as the end of August -- while rolling out for general consumer use as well, of course. We assuming they're gonna be using Taiwan's big WiFi rollout to handle the Wifi haul; Taipei hopes to have as many as 200,000 citizens sign up for service with Taipei Easy Call, which we don't think is at all unrealistic should software be developed for WiFi-enabled handsets, and assuming the local cellphone carriers don't throw and severe hissy fits.

[Via GigaOM]

[AJ @ Jul 7th 2006 12:42AM]

awesome, more news that has no benefit in sight for americans, cant wait!

they probably have crappy voice quality since its voip, especially wifi voip which is crappier

[aonicc @ Jul 7th 2006 5:35AM]

bitter much? more voip providers mean more voip devices, devices which will offer more features and more choice once they do finally make it to america.

be happy someone is taking care of the early adopter stage for you. if you wanna join in, get a skype phone from netgear or something.

[blargman @ Jul 7th 2006 6:32AM]

its a good question. albeit a bit of a crude way of putting it. wouldn't thousands of wifi devices in a small area cause for some technical issues of just cramming too much on an already overused band?

[Matthew @ Jul 7th 2006 8:41AM]

As an American living in Taiwan, I'm very happy hearing this. AJ, this is great news for Americans, because most technological trends start in places like Taipei, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo, then eventually make their way to the States.

BTW, I use WiFi VoIP to make all of my international phone calls, and with the broadband infrastructure of Taiwan it sounds great.

[Joe C @ Jul 7th 2006 2:13PM]

as a Taiwanese living in America now, I strongly agree with Matthew, and strongly disagree with AJ.As a teenager, i support any kind of technological advancement even though some might be proven useless, and waste of money. Although I am not a wifi phone user, and do not know about the quality, but i believe it is better than what AJ discribed. Also, I believe this site is not restricted to be view in US only, about 1st AJ's common, i hope he can get some international view, and stop thinking about US only, and US the greatest. Living Taiwan for 13 years, and US for 5 years, I am very sure that a lot more than .01 percent of technological trends make it to US. What AJ said is very cocky, and close minded. International will soon becomes everyone's, why even say "awesome, more news that has no benefit in sight for americans, cant wait! "? It is hard for me to believe that such self centered Americans still exist for US IS a really great country.

[OzDJ @ Jul 7th 2006 5:20PM]

Ladies and Gentlemen of the comments section, we have a troll in our midst and he/she goes by the nick "AJ". Please DO NOT feed it by responding to the crap it throws out. Thank you.

[Jimbob @ Jul 8th 2006 5:26AM]

VoIP is the way to go. Be cool to be able to use your mobile on it.