[Req] VOIP/SIP Client Bounty

[LiquidIce]

I think one of the killer apps for the iPhone is a SIP client. If you are in a place with wifi you would be able to send and receive phone calls through your asterisk server or voip provider. This would also allow you to have an iphone and not use it as your cell phone but more of a cordless phone for your house or your landlines through SIP converters.

I will start off the bounty at US$100 via Paypal to anyone who can produce an *open source* iPhone gui app that will log in to a user-defined SIP / Asterisk Server and make an outgoing voice call. It's not much $, but if anyone else wants to add to this bounty, post your contribution in this thread.

After what I've seen you guys do over the past month, it wouldn't surprise me if there are already several people working on this.

Other places i'm keeping an eye on:
http://forum.gizmoproject.com/viewtopic.php?t=5488&highlight=iphone - a gizmo client for the iphone would be unbelievable.
http://nerdvittles.com/index.php?p=185 - Bluetooth proximity sensing for iphone with asterisk
http://www.sflphone.org/ (possible to rewrite the frontend to this open source project to be iPhone friendly?)

Good luck devs, and let us know if you make any progress.

[local_punisher]

It will be great!!!!!!!
So if i understood corectly then we can use VOIP like skype or voipdiscount?
It will be superb, cause i use VOIP every day the same as normal phone.
Thnaks a LOT for your work, i mean everybody that are working on development of an iPhone.

One more question, i'd like for example to use VOIP not thru WiFi, but using GPRS or EDGE, it's posible something like this?
So then i can make calls directly from my iPhone and no need any additional equipment.

[logic]

As much as I would like to see an iPhone VOIP application come along, can you really see AT&T or any other carrier with exclusive rights to the iPhone allowing you to make cheap/free calls via VOIP....

[wargor]

I don't see why not. Currently with some of the wondows mobile phones you can download skype mobile and make free call over wifi. Some people who have Sprint or Verizon can make free skype calls over their wireless provider because they have a fast network. ATT and Tmobile have slow networks so it's not possible. Maybe with 3G you can but definetly not with edge.

[tys]

As much as I would like to see an iPhone VOIP application come along, can you really see AT&T or any other carrier with exclusive rights to the iPhone allowing you to make cheap/free calls via VOIP....

We don't need their permission, someone just needs to make the app!
I suppose a phone company could somehow block VOIP over their edge network, but it would still work through wifi. Edge is probably to slow for VOIP anyway, right?

[the_gts]

Actually this is happening with T-mobile in the states. They have a few phones that have built-in VoIP. they advertise it alot stating just imagine your calls while in your house or where there is WiFi are all free and when you leave they forward to your cell phone.
it is a good idea. you see we all use our home or office phones when we have access to them to reduce our cell phone bills. they know that but what they are betting on is fowarding all the home and business calls from your answer-machine/ secretary to you directly and make mor emoney from you ;) also the service is not free think it was $19.99 (but this number can be wrong cause i didnt buy the seervice seeing they needed me to use specific phones).

[RVN84]

this is good business for the providers... if X provider sees this, makes their service, bundles it with plans and promotes it, they will make a load of cash...

if they do like at&t and "deny" it just means they will eventually lose out on a good business...

[inkhead]

I'll up the bounty. I'll pay $1,500 for a GUI app that does this, I might want to help with the graphics, but I'll pay.

Hack on!

[acarlos1000]

Hey guys, I have a Nokia E61 which has a native SIP client and Wifi connection, I always use my E61 and call for free using VoIP over SIP, or Skype or Gtalk.

I also tried VoIP over Edge, but it sucks big time, over Wifi it's perfect.

There are a lot of clients that handle SIP for Symbian, and when you try to call any number it offers you the option to call via the cellular network or VoIP, it's a shame that Apple doesn't open the API officially.

I really believe that an SIP client for iPhone will be THE killer app.

[eyeareque]

Voip could work over edge but I think the client/server may need some tweaks to make this work. I believe edge has about a 900ms+ round trip response time, sip normally dies at 200ms or slower. I do know that they do voip over sat links, and those are near 900ms as well so it wouldn't be impossible... IMO.

[koala75]

Could it be possible to "modify", instal X-LITE (voip app) on iphone? I use it with my macbook pro, and it's a great app, and over an SIP server, with wifi connection, it could be a great issue to make calls with iphone...

[terry.simons]

Could it be possible to "modify", instal X-LITE (voip app) on iphone? I use it with my macbook pro, and it's a great app, and over an SIP server, with wifi connection, it could be a great issue to make calls with iphone...

Not unless you happen to have the source code lying around. ;)

[volkspost]

I 'd be in with another $100. I am uing a Nokia E60 (with integrated WLAN- and SIP-Client) here in Germany. VoIP (Sip) is working perfect over WLAN (just had a vaccation in Greece with free Hotsport at the Hotel). Works over UMTS in Europe aswell, iPhone does not support that but i don`t care.
Sipgate in Germany (www.sipgate.de) and UK (www.sipgate.co.uk) are providing free account inclusing a landline "real" Phone Number you can be reached through by any Phone. If you wanna call landline phone, you need a prepaid account. I put 50 Euro (65 $) into a year ago, been in the US, Greece aso a lot. Still 42 Euro in my account - perfect.

volkspost

[smilindog2000]

Well... I'm feeling charitable, but cheap :-) I'll add $50 for an Asterisk compatible SIP client. While we're at it, Asterisk surely can be ported to iPhone. I've worked a bit with David Rowe at rowetel.com. This guy and his cohorts got Asterisk running on the Blackfin architecture. An iPhone should be easy in comparison.

[ilikepudding]

This is an awesome idea. I approve of this thread.

We could definitely use this a lot more than doom for the iphone at the time being.

Here are some open source projects to get whoever wants to work on this started:

VOIP:
http://divmod.org/projects/shtoom
http://yate.null.ro/pmwiki/
http://www.freeswitch.org/

SIP:
http://www.openwengo.org/
http://www.sipfoundry.org/sipXezPhone/

I hope this helps

[fishnchips]

While I like this idea and agree it'll be easier to build a SIP client for the iPhone than Skype (which is essentially closed) one thing I've always struggled with is why I would use a SIP softphone instead of Skype.... Any thought from anyone?

[jgarland79]

This is an awesome idea. I approve of this thread.

We could definitely use this a lot more than doom for the iphone at the time being.

Here are some open source projects to get whoever wants to work on this started:

VOIP:
http://divmod.org/projects/shtoom
http://yate.null.ro/pmwiki/
http://www.freeswitch.org/

SIP:
http://www.openwengo.org/
http://www.sipfoundry.org/sipXezPhone/

I hope this helps

Freeswitch allready compiles and runs on OS X and for Linux on the ARM platform. It was designed to be a voip softphone among other things. The only thing it needs is a pretty gui.

[jgarland79]

While I like this idea and agree it'll be easier to build a SIP client for the iPhone than Skype (which is essentially closed) one thing I've always struggled with is why I would use a SIP softphone instead of Skype.... Any thought from anyone?

Skype is a closed protocol and SIP is an open protocol. In a nutshell, Skype sucks because Skype only connects to Skype.

[fishnchips]

Skype is a closed protocol and SIP is an open protocol. In a nutshell, Skype sucks because Skype only connects to Skype.

I get that but most of the people I'd like to chat to are either Skype users or places where my Skype Pro account lets me call them for free.

Aside from the closed protocol issue I can see a few key benefits for SIP:

1. I can 'roam' across multiple devices with the same number (home phone, Mac, Nokia E65, hopefully iPhone) - Skype isn't as flexible
2. I can call for the same rate regardless of the originating region (SkpyePro detects where you are calling from and cheekily charges you for the call if you're not in a SkypePro county - I found this out in Tokyo)
3. If the softphone supported IAX I could connect to my home Asterisk server and use my real phone line for incoming and outgoing calls as well as check voicemail, etc...

So I think I answered my own question ;)

[ilikepudding]

Is anyone actively working on this?

[totopower]

Your proyect its very nice and I actually will love to use my iphone with my asterisk server, but since we can´t use it know, SKYPE does have an aplication that you can use it today with the iphone, just using SAFARI visit http://s4iphone.com an login with your skype account , they use call back system over voip, you can save a lot of money.

[sleepyfox]

I'm part of a team porting the Sofia SIP stack to iPhone, we'll keep you posted on progress. We've ported Sofia to OS X before so it can't be *that* hard. We work with Freeswitch and Asterisk and are very familiar with the tech.

If anyone wants to help with the CoreAudio or UIKit parts of getting a softphone to work on the iphone then drop me a line, as that's the areas that we have least familiarity with.

Fox
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[eduz]

I don't know if this could help but a SIP client was just released for the Nintendo DS, maybe looking for it's source code could help, here is the link http://libw11.free.fr/svsip/index.html

[sleepyfox]

I don't know if this could help but a SIP client was just released for the Nintendo DS, maybe looking for it's source code could help, here is the link http://libw11.free.fr/svsip/index.html

:-) Thanks, we already have a FOSS SIP library with Sofia: http://sofia-sip.sourceforge.net/

The build is looking good after early problems with ranlib and libtool, and I'm hoping all the test code will be up and running by Monday.

Fox
---

[symourjr]

wow this is great! fox do u have a blog or something so that we could be updated of your status? or u prefer posting here? hehe

[mikewen]

Hi Fox,

Any updates on porting SIP on iPhone?



Mike,
http://www.gta-wireless.com

[sleepyfox]

Looks like we're famous! :-)

http://us.blognation.com/2007/09/25/bn-exclusive-truphone-to-launch-voip-client-on-iphone/

[ilikepudding]

Looks like we're famous! :-)

http://us.blognation.com/2007/09/25/bn-exclusive-truphone-to-launch-voip-client-on-iphone/

Quick! Get out a GUI so I can use it :P

[larc]

Nice to hear that good progress is beeing made! I'm wondering though, is this a completely closed/locked solution or will I be albe to use my current SIP-server and operator?

I think it would be unfortunate if it is locked since it would force the development of a competing, truly free and customizable solution. Truphone should be able to make enough money just by making themselves the default operator and allow the users the freedom to choose. Don't you agree sleepyfox?

[rcgabriel]

Well, they're using Sofia-SIP, which is LGPLed, so if nothing else they will have to release back any changes they made to get it compiling and working on the iPhone. The GUI app they build around it could be closed, however. But it shouldn't be too hard for somebody else to build an open SIP client given the working Sofia-SIP library.

Personally, I'd rather see an IAX client app on the iPhone. There are a ton of small businesses using Asterisk now, and a bunch of companies offering IAX termination. IAX is far easier to configure and traverse firewalls and real-world internet topologies with than SIP. SIP is fine for within an Intranet, but otherwise is a bit of a pain in the ass to configure.

[larc]

So, Sofia-SIP, a GUI and bidirectional audio would be the essential parts of a fully Open Source client then? Does Sofia-SIP have a simple high-level API or is it complicated to interface with it?

Is there an open source implementation of the IAX protocol that could be used also?

All the current efforts are just going into the closed Truphone solution right? So the #iphone-voip chat is just for Truphone dev?

[sleepyfox]

I've never been on #iphone-voip, so I couldn't comment.

I would say however that the SIP part is the easy bit. As is the UDP/RTP side and the UI.

The difficult bit is the audio device integration.

I can't speak about 'all current efforts', but all *MY* current efforts are going into the iTruphone, yes :-)

Fox
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[gazel]

I've never been on #iphone-voip, so I couldn't comment.

I would say however that the SIP part is the easy bit. As is the UDP/RTP side and the UI.

The difficult bit is the audio device integration.

I can't speak about 'all current efforts', but all *MY* current efforts are going into the iTruphone, yes :-)

Fox
---
Since you seem to be the man, do you know if we likely to see an open version release of this software or your getting paid by Truphone to do the job?

[sleepyfox]

Nice to hear that good progress is beeing made! I'm wondering though, is this a completely closed/locked solution or will I be albe to use my current SIP-server and operator?

Does your current SIP-server and operator have a carrier grade network and POPs in 35 countries? This all costs money.

Truphone is a business. There is no way they would invest all the time and effort to provide a VOIP client on the iPhone if a competitor could just go 'install the Truphone VOIP client and then go to settings and get it to point to our SIP server URL here:', now would they? Let's be realistic.

I think it would be unfortunate if it is locked since it would force the development of a competing, truly free and customizable solution. Truphone should be able to make enough money just by making themselves the default operator and allow the users the freedom to choose. Don't you agree sleepyfox?

Whilst I'm all for FOSS I also recognise that companies need to earn their lunch too.

I wouldn't be working for Truphone if I didn't think they had a great customer proposition. Free VOIP-to-VOIP calls and dirt cheap international calls is a great deal as far as I can see.

Fox
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[iRocco]

hmm, does this mean ill be able to use my iphone as my home phone to receive calls from my "land connection"? im using VOIP at home.

[gazel]

hmm, does this mean ill be able to use my iphone as my home phone to receive calls from my "land connection"? im using VOIP at home.

Yes, if you use a system like voiptalk they let you choose where to send your incoming calls, so I suppose you can just push them to XXXXXX@truphone.com SIP address.

[gazel]

Does your current SIP-server and operator have a carrier grade network and POPs in 35 countries? This all costs money.

Truphone is a business. There is no way they would invest all the time and effort to provide a VOIP client on the iPhone if a competitor could just go 'install the Truphone VOIP client and then go to settings and get it to point to our SIP server URL here:', now would they? Let's be realistic.



Whilst I'm all for FOSS I also recognise that companies need to earn their lunch too.

I wouldn't be working for Truphone if I didn't think they had a great customer proposition. Free VOIP-to-VOIP calls and dirt cheap international calls is a great deal as far as I can see.

Fox
---

OK, it's now clear where you stand, I remember you asking for help on this forum a while ago:

"If anyone wants to help with the CoreAudio or UIKit parts of getting a softphone to work on the iphone then drop me a line, as that's the areas that we have least familiarity with."

Is this a job offer from Truphone or just a please community help me to sell my locked product?

I hope you will make at least the SIP stack available and probably leave out the trick to get the phone keypad to dial VOIP calls...

[steinerik]

So is the truphone the only voip client in development here?
I would rather pay for an .app that let me use my own sip account. It would be far more useful.

[squirrelfon]

Given that there were at least 10 threads with VoIP ideas on this forum and in General, I think it would be nice to have a sub forum. I think many people could also cotribute Nx$.02 to raise bounty for that important idea.

[sleepyfox]

OK, it's now clear where you stand, I remember you asking for help on this forum a while ago:

"If anyone wants to help with the CoreAudio or UIKit parts of getting a softphone to work on the iphone then drop me a line, as that's the areas that we have least familiarity with."

Is this a job offer from Truphone or just a please community help me to sell my locked product?

No, this is not a 'gief sekrets pls!' post. We've put a lot of hard work into this (as the BlogNation article showed) and where we have to make any changes to Sofia or Gstreamer to make them work on the iPhone these will be released back to the community (obviously)

We've recently employed 2 people from the iPhone community, so yes, this is in essence a job offer, if you've got the smarts.

There's a lot more to a VOIP solution on the iPhone than just the client app that will talk to your home Asterisk box, give that some thought...

Fox
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[OdynOOb]

Fox, if you need an alpha tester, let me know.

Allready use Truphone on my Nokia E70, and would love to help getting it on the iPhone.

[ilikepudding]

please tell them to just release the beta for 1.0.2 already. I need to make international calls.

[happyuser]

Here we go: http://hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14735

Please vote there so that we get a VoIP Client asap!

Thanks!!

[wearevoip]

I would like to see it also, for different reasons. I have a Nokia E51 with built in WiFi and SIP. I use it in my office on our SIP based phone system. As soon as I walk into the office, the phone defaults to SIP for all outbound calls and my Nokia is my extension. When I go out, it reverts to 3G/GSM. Brilliant!

The IPhone 2 is a great looking device and I was very keen to see it in Australia, but now I have this transparent WiFi / carrier changeover, I would not bother with an Iphone even if it had a softphone add on. It has to be seamless. Then it would be a true Enterprise handset.

Listening Apple?

Mark

[Jim Danner]

I would like to see it also, for different reasons. I have a Nokia E51 with built in WiFi and SIP. I use it in my office on our SIP based phone system. As soon as I walk into the office, the phone defaults to SIP for all outbound calls and my Nokia is my extension. When I go out, it reverts to 3G/GSM. Brilliant!

The IPhone 2 is a great looking device and I was very keen to see it in Australia, but now I have this transparent WiFi / carrier changeover, I would not bother with an Iphone even if it had a softphone add on. It has to be seamless. Then it would be a true Enterprise handset.

Listening Apple?

MarkDid you realize that you were posting to an 8 months old thread? Things tend to move in the tech world... There is now a sort-of-working SIP client, Siphon, and a fully working SIP & Skype client, Fring, and also another SIP client that apparently works in the USA, iCal. Happy searching..