sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information iPhone as wireless station

I would like to use an iPhone/iPad/iPod-touch an a station on an analog station line (Pana kx-ta824). It seems that treating the iPhone as sort of an OPX (see this post ) might be the way to go, if there is a suitable app for that on the iPhone end - and I have seen a couple of possible candidates.

Does anyone have some specific experience, or some pointers to a working example?

Thanks

We have several iPhone extensions hooked up to an Asterisk box. We use Bria on the iPhone, which seems decent.

Some observations with the iPhone: It drains the battery fast. I'd do a few cheap DECT handsets (Wal-Mart) plugged into analog ports if that would be an option, instead of Bria. Of course that isn't an option for everyone.

Forget about Bria working over 3G. It sort of works sometimes, if you buy the g.729 codec.

For remote extensions, it's okay (buying the g.729 codec is not optional for this IMHO), although you might need a completely different connection configuration on Bria for a remote user when he's at his house than when he's at his home...getting the NAT configured to work can be very tricky. Definitely pilot it first before deploying to a large number of users.

Because it is real VoIP/SIP, using it off-premise has all the typical problems of VoIP/SIP across the internet, along with additional problems from sharing a wireless LAN.

For quality/battery-life, a cheap DECT cordless phone plugged into an ATA will work better.

I wouldn't recommend the iPad/iPod-touch since they don't work very well as a cell phone (the iPod has no built in mic, the iPad does but it isn't exactly easy to use as a phone unless you are a Sumo wrestler).