Larry Moss

I'm trying to help a friend simplify her communication needs. I gave her my
old 2G iPhone. It's unlocked and jailbroken. She's using it on T-Mobile
with a pre-pay plan. Basically, she spends very little time on the phone,
so she doesn't need anything beyond what she has. She just wants the phone
to work when she needs it, for both incoming and outgoing, but outgoing
calls are the more important one right now. She would be perfectly happy
with a dumb phone if she could get a cell signal (on any carrier) at home,
but she can't. Right now, she carries a cordless landline phone around teh
house and her cell when she's out of the house. But a single device would
make her life easier, especially if it could also replace the ages old
Palm she carries with contacts, calendar, etc.

Ideally, we'll get her set up in a way that she can use the iphone (or some
other phone if there's a better recommendation that won't cost a fortune in
voice and data plans) as a VOIP handset at home or as a cell phone when out
of the house. A single number should reach her wherever she is. The single
number thing is easy. Google voice will ring whatever phones/lines we set
up for her. She already has that. But it would be nice if she could use a
VOIP line rather than the home line and answer on the iPhone. Now, this is
a 2G phone. It can't run ios 4, so background VOIP apps require the
jailbreak. There are a bunch of VOIP things that come up searching Cydia,
but I'd love recommendations on how to go about making this all work.

This would be easier if T-Mobile was still offering their hotspot@home
service. That's really what she needs. They have a plan that works
similarly with Blackberries, but that requires a much more expensive plan
than makes sense for her usage.

As an aside, I dont' know how well a VOIP app works on the 2G phone. I had
used fring on it a few times in the past, but there were too many other
problems I had with it for my use at the time, I gave up on it. (But I have
had good experiences with it on my 3GS.) If we can make this all work, it
wouldn't be the end of the world for me to pick up a used, but newer
iphone. It's the cost of the plans that are a problem for her, not the
cost of the phone itself. Heck, I can upgrade to an iphone 4 and give her
my 3GS.

Thanks for any suggestions.

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Larry Moss, http://www.airigami.com
PO Box 23523, Rochester, NY 14692, (585) 359-8695
Airigami: The fine art of folding air.