WiFi Telephony in Puerto Vallarta, a first hand experience

UPDATE
Since this original post , many of the restaurant and Starbucks hot spots are now locked down with Infinitum credentials required which can not be entered on the phone discussed here.

WiFi Telephone, What is it?

A telephone that much resembles, or may be integrated into a cell phone. It connects via 802.11b or 802.11g which are standards used for wireless networking. It uses the same internet telephone technology used by many Internet Telephone Providers. The advantages are clear: It works anywhere there is an open WiFi hotspot, or a hotspot that you have the network key to use.

We recently had the opportunity to test the UTStarcom Model F3000 in Puerto Vallarta. This article will cover the experience with open WiFi HotSpot compatibility, availability and overall call quality.

WiFi in Puerto Vallarta does not have the availability as it does in the USA. In the USA it is very common to find offices and homes opening their WiFi connections. In Mexico it seems that people are less likely to have an open network. Secondly, when available, WiFi does not have the same compatibility for a couple of technical reasons detailed below.

1) Prodigy Infinitum is fine, sometimes, when used with the included wireless router. Some of these 2Wire routers may tend to block SIP telephony packets. Many “Do it yourself” configurations make the error of a separate wireless router on a modem that has an integrated router. Any modem used with a separate router should operate in the Bridge mode, or a modem with a router built in should be used with a wireless access point (with no router), Many wireless routers will operate in a Wireless Access point only mode, but the included documentation is usually not clear on how to do this.

2) Cable is different in Vallarta from the USA or Canada in that the cable providers here do not offer a public IP to the Customer Premise Equipment. Instead a NAT is between the end user and the Internet. This in itself does not present a problem, however when cable companies provide wireless modems they are placing them in Router/NAT mode and not in bridge mode. If the wireless modems operated in bridge mode all of the IPS would come from the cable company’s DHCP server (since they are private IPs anyway they cost them nothing!) , and not the modem, thereby eliminating the second “layer” of NAT (Router integrated into the modem). This current configuration represents mass stupidity (or an intention to block these devices) on the part of the cable companies in Vallarta.

In either of the cases above there are two layers of NAT. This presents a problem for most SIP based services that these phones use. Although at times, you may have no problems with a dual NAT, the problem may occur suddenly unexpectedly, and without warning.

It is also very common to find multiple access points from the same network that are configured in a way that there is no automatic “roaming” between access points. This means that the user must “reconnect” to the new access point manually or wait till the phone finds the signal of the new access point.

We tested all along the Malecon and found near a dozen open hot spots available. We were not able to identify the source of all the signals, but suffice to say that with a phone like this there are plenty of open spots all around Puerto Vallarta that work. In fact we have been surprised at times, like when in the Centro branch of HSBC, that the WFi phone rang on an incoming call. It had picked up an open WiFi signal from the Cigar Shop across the street.

90% of the 30 calls over a 3 day period were fine. Of the 10% with issues, most of these were related to bandwidth availability. You never know what you are getting when you connect to an open Access Point. Also however thee phones can be configured to use different CODECs. The CODEC mandates the amount of bandwidth required. The tradeoff for using less bandwidth , is lower quality.

Vangoh Café, Plaza Caracol: Good Results, but not an “open” WiFi spot they did provide us the key.

Bubba Gump, Malecon; Connectred and made good quality calls

Starbucks Malecon: NO CALLS IN OR OUT WERE POSSIBLE. This is an access point owned and operated by TelMex, which as I understand it they may begin requiring a TelMex account to use. The ownership of the access point alone may indicate why this technology did not work there.

Starbucks Plaza Peninsula: We were able to make and receive calls. We found that the signal from Chili’s gave us better results.

Chili’s Plaza Peninsula Excellent results with incoming and outgoing calls

Vip’s Restaurant: Located in front of Wal Mart offers open WiFi that worked with excellent results for incoming and outgoing calls.

Roberto’s, South Malecon. There appeared to be a signal here but we had problems connecting to it. We later found a different signal with SSID “Home of the Dolphins” just a few doors to the south, but could not find the origin.

In Nuevo Vallarta we found Velas and another called Marival. Neither of these were usable for VoIP Services , most probably due to the configuration of those networks.

We found a lot of WiFi signals in and around Vallarta that have the SSID name “WebStar” We suspect that these come from “Webstar” wireless cable modems. Unfortunately because the configuration of the double NAT described earlier, NONE of them worked!

The nice folks at AeroNet allowed us to test the WiFi phone with their service in their office. We had excellent outbound call quality, but could not test inbound calls.

In conclusion any person making regular stops in Vallarta will learn where the open WiFi Spots are very quickly. This means you can easily stop for a coffee, and make some calls in a more relaxed environment while not paying through the nose. If you are fortunate enough to have the same service in all locations, those calls may well be free, no matter the physical locations.

The cost of these WiFi phones can be anywhere from about $150 US to $400 USD depending on the model and features.

I think there is also an important rule of thumb to follow, “The love you take is equal to the love you make”. What this means if you will be using others’ bandwidth, share yours, and do not be a leech!