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A big hurdle for VoIP over cell?

Many in the VoIP community are excited about the prospect of VoIP-enabled cell phones that would enable calls on the cheap, and use GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) as a subset.Some of the newer 3G (third-generation cell phones) are equipped with GPRS.
Written by Russell Shaw, Contributor

Many in the VoIP community are excited about the prospect of VoIP-enabled cell phones that would enable calls on the cheap, and use GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) as a subset.

Some of the newer 3G (third-generation cell phones) are equipped with GPRS.

GPRS supports IP data packets capable ofsupporting Web browsing, file transferand some multimedia applications. It's a big leap from SMS (Short Messaging Service), which usually only supports text-based messagingof 160 characters or less.

At least in Italy, though, the marriage of VoIP, cell and GPRS faces a rough hurdle. I've learned that after reading a new post from a Slashdot reader.

"Flat-rate plans for GPRS do exist here in Italy, but ...operators explicitly ban VoIP in their contracts," laments reader "mbaciarello."

Will such exclusions cause VoIP and cellto notcombine? Would you regret this? Post a TalkBack.

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