Poor man's SimBox

The company that employs me uses a simbox to automatically route calls via the cheapest cell network.

I wondered… surely someone out there must have created something similar for people who are just making a few calls by linking a 3G internet dongle to a VoIP account, or indeed even trying to do it all within Android for example.

But searching for words like “simbox” isn’t producing the results I’m looking for. What else can I search for? I’ve started a discussion on gnokii-users but I’m not sure this is on topic there

I hope you don’t intend to resell the service! That would be illegal in the UK, and when looking up SIM Box, I discovered that some operators consider it fraud, and are prepared to pay for equipment to detect the traffic patterns it produces. xintec.com/simbox_fraud.aspx

There are two parts to this, one is “least cost routing”, the other is the use of GSM (etc.) terminal device.

I would have assumed that most of the cost was in the GSM terminals, anyway.

Yes it was on the news recently so I looked it up and that reminded me that my employer has a setup like this, which was why they call on a different callerID each time.

It’s usually against the terms and conditions but possibly not for incoming calls that are going from GSM to a VoIP line, no? That way if my girlfriend has free same network minutes she can call me on my VoIP line. This would be a very simple setup; I just want to control a mobile phone remotely in effect and call through it. My “least cost routing” would be me manually looking up the numbers or just using a single point-to-point.

Actually, I guess I could do this by putting a phone next to a laptop, sharing the display by VNC and using speakerphone… but I kind of thought someone may have developed something before me.

Thanks for those phrases. Certainly this is very easy using equipment designed for people commiting the reselling fraud but I just want to do it with one mobile phone and so it’s (probably?) not worth the >$500 for a simbox.

The thing is, why do we need a GSM terminal? That’s my point. An android phone and also 3G dongles have the capability, no? Also, I wondered if a bluetooth a2dp connection might make it possible… or even a tty serial connection via USB designed for modems, but instead of using data, make a voice call.