considering new mobile handset with SIP

At present I have Nokia E5 on Orange contract, except it's broken and out of warranty so I've dropped back to an older phone I kept as backup. I'm due to get a new phone under the contract in April and want one that will handle both UMA (aka Signal Boost) and SIP.

I've tried looking at the phones on offer with my provider, but they don't seem to mention SIP. I recall a previous post I made where is was suggested that Android phones are easier to set up than the Nokia I was using. I know little about mobile handsets, hence asking.

I'm not a Mr Moneybags and don't want to be getting a £200 phone or anything, it defeats the object a little. I'm out of work right now so need to keep costs right down. I'm also aware that my provider will restrict the options available as I don't have a mega package with them that gives me the option of 'any' handset they offer.

I only need to make calls and send texts, I don't have any Internet access on my current package, but could use the SIP when I'm on the home WiFi connection, which is all I need really. I'm happy with the contract package I have.

Any suggestions? I've had one, and that was to consider a 'pre loved' handset, but that meant buying one and I should get a new handset free from my existing contract, which is why I'm asking.

Thanks

I'm by no means any sort of expert on the subject, but I can hopefully help by pointing you in the direction of any handset that supports CyanogenMod 7 or later. Check out the cyanogenmod website for an extensive list.

I realise you said you prefer not to go second hand, but to install CM on a handset likely means voiding your warranty, which means imo an option for you would indeed be to find a cheap second hand handset - something like the ZTE Blade aka the Orange San Francisco.

Hope that at least partially helps!

Ah, thanks for that. It confuses me now as I was given to understand that many Android phones could use SIP as standard?

The point of not wanting second hand is that it would cost me to buy a phone, cheap as it may be, when I'm due to get a new phone on my forthcoming upgrade. If it means modifying the phone in a way that voids the warranty then I guess I'm barking up the wrong tree.

My old Nokia E5 had SIP as standard. Orange are not doing that phone any more and I'm not able to tell, on their website anyway, if they do any others with VOIP support.

That phone is still on contract but not working, Orange say they only give a 12 month warranty, which seems a bit daft on a 24 month contract! However, Nokia provide a 24 month warranty, so I'm going to chase them up, see if I can't get my phone replaced. If needs be I'll keep using that phone when I renew the contract.

Go with vodafone next time. The warranty on the phone lasts as long as the contract

SIP on Android relies on an app, for which there seems to be a wide choice.

The SIP side is built into android, so in theory the app should just be providing the interface and other features.

Not used any of them, as just have Skype, but CSipSimple seems to get some favourable reviews

Many thanks, I'll do some reading...

I had thought that SIP would be on the phone when I got it, it was with the Nokia E5.

In reply to a post by TMCR:

Many thanks, I'll do some reading...

I had thought that SIP would be on the phone when I got it, it was with the Nokia E5.

SIP is built into Android gingerbread but some phone manufacturer decide to remove this for some reason my Samsung galaxy S2 did not have this because Samsung decided to take it out of their firmware. But i bought a £50 T-Mobile Vivacity unlocked it to three and the native SIP function of gingerbread works perfectly ive got unlimited net as part of my contract so i leave that on but i think it would also work with wifi it dose also hamper the battery a bit but i don't mind as i charge it on a nightly basis anyway, So yea you just need to have a little look around for phones that might of had it removed best bet would be to nip into your phone providers shop and have a play about with the display models see if they still have it on.

i add sip accounts to my phone by going to setting>Call settings and then at the bottom it says accounts this is were you add the sip accounts.

Hope this helps a little

Ash

Edited by acpsd775 (Wed 17-Oct-12 01:10:21)

AFAIK all mobile operators, apart from 3, block SIP ports / traffic.
Or has that changed ?
Regards,
Martin

I had SIP working OK on my Nokia E5 until it broke, I'm with Orange. It only worked on the WiFi connection, not when I'm out and about, if that's what you meant.

Yeah the networks often block/remove the SIP functionality from the software when they sell the handset. A way around this is to install a third party distribution of Android like cyanogenmod which has not removed the SIP functions, which was my reasoning for suggesting that you make sure that it's supported by Cyanogenmod.

My CM7 handset (Gingerbread based) works with SIP on WiFi using Sipgate and it works straight out of the box with no additional apps needed. When I dial out and the handset is connected on a wifi network, CM7's standard dialler software is set to ask me if I want to use SIP or GSM for the call.

I'm on an O2 PAYG tariff and the handset will ring and display the caller ID when I'm out of range of WiFI, but I have never had a successful call so I don't try to answer any more. I had always put it down to lack of bandwidth, but it may of course be down to O2 severely throttling. It works fine for SIP calls when I'm on a WiFi network.

Edited by dtbb (Thu 18-Oct-12 21:51:26)