Alpha Test of VoIP on Smartphone App...

speaQ is a softphone application supporting VoIP on mobile handsets with access to Wi-Fi or EVDO access. It currently runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 Devices and under Linux on the Sharp Zaurus, and is in alpha testing at the moment.

Users with wireline VoIP accounts should have access to full call logging, contact manager integration, and DTMF on any 300Mhz+ Windows Mobile devices, such as the Palm Treo 700w, HP Ipaq 2495, etc. or under Linux on the Sharp Zaurus 5600.

Alpha trial features include:
* Standard Dialing
* Incoming, Outgoing, Missed call log
* Caller Id
* Last Dialed Number recall
* Mute
* Ring Tones
* STUN support for firewall communication

Mobile providers might not be crazy about VoIP on mobiles, but it's hard to see how it can be stopped, short of complete blocking of VoIP packets. And that could be dangerous. Aside from the inevitable customer irritation, all that is required is for one of the national wireless providers to turn this into a customer acquisition opportunity ("We don't block VoIP") and the pain might be significant.

And there doesn't seem to be much doubt about the emergence of smart phones as the dominant paradigm in mobile handsets. In Western Europe, most handsets will be smart phones, and already most mobile browsing is done outside an operator walled garden, on the open Web. It's hard to see how the VoIP genie can be stuffed back in the bottle.