Personal & Professional Products / PalmGphone

Palm Gphone 2.0 FAQ

1. Release date
   • commercial release July
   • will be available as download from VLI’s online service website (www.gphoneonline.com) and corporate website www.vliusa.com
2. How does the product work?
   • When the user starts up Gphone, the client’s IP address is registered with VLI’s online server
   • User enters others’ user name/numbers similar to Instant Messenger buddy lists
   • User can call online “buddies” by double tapping their icon
   • User can call PSTN number by inputting number
   • User will also be able to input a SIP URL to call other SIP phones
3. NAT/FW, STUN
   • Real time voice communications use UDP ports (NOT TCP/IP ports)
   • Firewalls block ports
   • NATs give local IP addresses behind global IP addresses; confusing real time communications
   • This is an INDUSTRY problem, how to do VoIP through NATs and Firewalls
   • VLI is implementing the STUN solution (Simple Traversal of UDP through NATs)
4. PSTN calling
   • Gphone can call to PSTN through gateways
   • VLI is working with leading VoIP gateway providers to provide low cost call termination worldwide
5. Messaging
   • Later this year VLI will introduce a Voice Messaging service which will bring IP based voice messaging to these devices
   • This service will also allow asynchronous messaging; meaning the user can load up their outbox while on the airplane and just pickup/dropoff messages quickly when a connection is established
   • Palm Gphone is SIP (session initiated protocol) compliant
   • Palm Gphone can integrate into any SIP gateway or IP-PBX
   • In this fashion Palm Gphone can be a wireless office phone
6. SIP
   • SIP is the emerging standard for VoIP strongly supported by Cisco and Microsoft (XP Messenger is SIP)
   • SIP is a peer-to-peer protocol, meaning that once the connection is made the traffic does NOT go through a central server
7. Value proposition
   • Save 90-95% on international roaming phone calls to PSTN (calls terminated in the US, over an IP connection from ANYWHERE in the world, will cost less than $.03/minute)
   • Free toll bypass between two connected devices
   • Longer term: enable IP-PBX/Centrex features and functionality for consumers and SOHO
8. Other VoIP softphones, competition
   • Most other VoIP softphones for PDAs are positioned strictly for the IP-PBX market
   • VLI has uniquely position Palm Gphone for consumers and small businesses

Q&A

1. Why not just use my cellphone?
   • Often inbuilding coverage of cellphones is poor
   • Convenient to use PDA if already using PDA for data applications/services
   • Cellphones are not allowed in hospitals and medical clinics due to interference
   • Cellphones don’t work worldwide; not as ubiquitous a standard as Wi-Fi is
   • Even where cellphones do roam internationally, calls are very expensive ($1-2/minute)
   • Cellphone “bucket plans” can make US domestic calling as low as $.05/minute (if you use all your minutes) but require 1-2 year contracts/commitments, and have high “over bucket” charges (again, IP calls terminating in the US will be <$.03/minute on a prepay plan)
   • Prepay and pay-as-you-go plans (with no contract) are much more expensive ($.25/minute)
2. What if my device isn’t turned on? Will this wake up the device?
   • No an incoming call will not wake up your device; there are some efforts to make Wi-Fi radios that are sensitive in this manner but nothing is definitive yet
   • VLI is working to have Palm Gphone turn the screen off and work in the background to save power
   • VLI is focused more on outbound calling; there are more NAT/FW issues with inbound, and there is no standard numbering system yet for inbound IP calls
   • VLI is developing Internet based voice messaging so that if someone you’re trying to reach is not online, they will get the message as soon as they do connect
3. Will public Wi-Fi hot spots take off? Is all this hype real?
   • It is forecast that there will be many thousands of public hot spots in the coming years
   • The roaming & billing issues have to be sorted out for this to really take off though
   • The analogy has been made to the cellular industry circa 1985; when there were many small networks in the US and before the large service providers emerged to rollup the small networks into large, seamless nationwide networks; it WILL happen but it’ll take some time
   • There are by one estimate 2 million Wi-Fi access points being used now in the US in homes and businesses as extensions of existing broadband; these are candidates NOW to use this for phone calls
4. Does this supplement or replace existing phone services?
   • This is NOT a 1st line phone replacement
   • This replaces pay phones, hotels, cellphones and even office phones for outbound calls
   • VLI is developing a gateway box which will enable intelligent switching for incoming/outgoing calls which would make a Tungsten C into a home/office Wi-Fi cordless phone
5. Does this integrate into my Palm address book? Does this integrate with my company directory?
   
   • The version today doesn’t do this
   • VLI can do this type of work at very low costs through our Shanghai based professional services team