I’ve been gathering requirements for my Asterisk-based home VOIP system and have just had an epiphany.

I don’t need to buy any wireless VOIP phones to use with my Asterisk box; soon I’ll be able to just use my iPhone as my home phone!

I was looking at the Aastra and Linksys options, for example, and preparing to do research on which would integrate best with an contact directory. Ideally I am looking for a solution that can tie into my Apple Address Book.

The SDK to Save the Day

But no worries — as of the 11th, when the iPhone 3G and version 2 of the SDK launch, the reality of VOIP on the iPhone will likely be upon us. There are already a ton of projects out there that leverage the iPhone for VOIP capabilities, so this iPhone/HomePhone functionality could not be far behind.

Why Do We Care?

Think about this: when you get home your iPhone will connect to your home wireless, which is tied in with your Asterisk system. It registers itself with Asterisk — basically saying, “I’m home now, send any home calls to my iPhone.” As of that moment, any incoming calls to your home number will ring on your iPhone.

Plus, any outbound calls you make from the house will route out of your Asterisk box (VOIP) instead of over AT&T, meaning you’ll save money on minutes. Not only that, but there are even projects that are working on letting you browse your Asterisk VOIP voicemail through the iPhone’s Visual Voicemail interface.

The iPhone is about to change VOIP forever, and having it replace common household phones is going to be a big part of it.:

Links

[ The Asterisk Project ]
[ The Top VOIP Soft Phones for the iPhone ]
[ iCall ]
[ Fring ]

iCall is a new, totally legit native iPhone application that will let you swtich from a regular AT&T call (which uses minutes) to a WiFi call (which is free).

Check out the video.

iPhone. Want.

A couple fellow geeks convinced me yesterday that I need to have a VOIP infrastructure at home. Here’s how they did it:

You’re not running Asterisk at home?

That’s all it took. So yeah, it’s the project in line right after my web server migration. I’m putting it in VMWare (of course) and I’ll then be on the lookout for some cool VOIP phone options.

I suppose what I’ll be looking for is some sort of device that I can use wirelessly throughout the house. The image I have in mind is completely free, secure, and reliable phone connectivity, i.e. me roaming around the house talking for free over the Internet.

I need to read up on the project and start searching for a cool “phone” to use with it. If anyone out there is in the know on this stuff, do me a favor and let me know what the deal is. I’m all over it.