New Skype Phone Doesn't Need PC or Wi-Fi

Skype has partnered with Philips to create a cordless phone that takes my Vtech USB 7100 one step further, removing the requirement for a PC altogether.

The Vtech unit, incidentally, is a cordless phone that has two connections: a standard RJ-11 telephone line, and PC USB. The RJ-11 connection allows it to act like any other cordless telephone, and the USB connection allows it to connect to a Skype-enabled PC, which allows the user to place and receive calls via Skype. The problem, of course, is that it requires a PC to be running if you want to use the Skype features of the phone.

The new Philips phone removes the PC requirement, substituting the USB connection for an RJ-45 (wired Ethernet) connection. This intimates that the phone has a full Skype client embedded within, which is a great idea. The phone, which is supposed to be in the $150 range and will be available by the 2006 holiday season, is only one of many similar phones that are likely to hit the market in the next year or so.

While this phone is interesting, I still really like the idea of a self-contained Skype phone that will work over WiFi--particularly if it has an embedded Web browser and WPA client that would allow you to use it at virtually any hot spot--even those that require authentication. There are phones like this in development, such as the Netgear Skype WiFi phone, but they're going to be spendy ($300+), putting them out of range of most folks for a while yet.

The other issue I have with the current crop of Skype phones is that they only work with Skype--for that kind of money, it would be really good if they worked with competitive services like Yahoo, or even commercial VOIP systems like Vonage.