VoIP provider BroadVoice said it has successfully completed product development and will begin selling a WiFi/GSM phone, code-named Falcon, in the summer of 2006. The BroadVoice Falcon allows users to take advantage of BroadVoice's unlimited VoIP calling plans using WiFi networks. When the user is outside WiFi coverage, the Falcon acts like a standard mobile phone using a separate account with a GSM service provider, such as Cingular or T-Mobile. Interestingly, the phone doesn't use UMA technology, instead using session initiated protocol, or SIP technology, the protocol that will be used in the converged IMS world. While major vendors such as Motorola and Nokia are coming out with UMA (unlicensed mobile access) handsets to provide roaming between cellular and WiFi for GSM, the CDMA world is using SIP.
For more about BroadVoice's GSM/WiFi plans:
- check out this release from the company