Vonage UTSarcom Wifi Phone

As Voice over IP (VoIP) continues to grow in popularity, you can expect to see a raft of new related products hitting the shelves over the next few months.

Vonage is keen to promote its VoIP service as a viable alternative to traditional landline calling and is about to launch the Wifi Phone in conjunction with handset manufacturer Utstarcom - it’s actually been available in the US for some time now.

The Wifi Phone is about the same size as most mobiles and features a Nokia-style button layout.

Since many people buy mobile based on looks as much as functionality, the Wifi Phone is badly in need of an updated design. Similarly, the low-resolution mono screen isn’t particularly impressive.

That said, all the usual features are present, such as call waiting, three-way calling and call transfer. You can also set profiles, alarms and use a very crude calendar.
You’ll need a wireless router or access point and a broadband Internet connection to use this phone.

Setting it up is relatively easy, although the phone does its best to confuse matters thanks to the unintuitive menu system.

Once it’s performed a search for nearby wireless networks, you select the appropriate one and, if necessary, enter the WEP or WPA security key.

You can then save the network settings in one of four preset slots - the idea being that you can roam around different networks without having to go through the setup process each time.