N900, Skype/VOIP call quality

The Nokia N900 has Skype integrated into the UI. Once a VOIP account is configured, contacts show up in the phone’s address book with Skype call/IM options.

Since I’ve had the phone, I’ve never been able to answer a Skype call and hear a person for more than a few seconds. Reading on the Maemo forums helped uncover two facts:

• Some cellular service providers, like T-Mobile, may filter VOIP traffic to prevent Skype calls on their 3G services.
• A known bug in Maemo causes connection problems with Skype and other VOIP calls (all hardware with Maemo 5, not just the N900). This bug fix will be released in the PR1.2 Maemo milestone.

In order to test what is effecting my N900, I’ll have to try a VoIP call using Skype to a friend first on a 3G network connection and then over Wifi. If I have the problem with both places, then chances are it’s the Maemo5 bug. If I only have the problem over 3G, then maybe it’s T-Mobile filtering traffic.

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