A company called Republic Wireless made the headlines a while back. They advertise that they will send a call to either wifi or the cell network, whichever is cheaper and available. This is basically the Holy Grail of mobile communication. As promising as this is, there are gotchas.
For one, Republic Wireless basically licenses coverage from Sprint not unlike Metro PCS and others. This means that your back-up coverage is fairly spotty.
Second, they want $20 a month. This is cheaper than a cell phone account, but only half what Metro PCS wants including data. I have a suspicion that you're paying for a "data-only" account.
Finally, you have to use their phone (a Motorola Defy XT). Even though the software would work fine on any phone, and even though there are other Sprint phones, they want you to use a specific (rapidly aging) model.
If you put this all together, Republic Wireless is not exactly the "liberator" that it claims to be. In fact, they are fairly rigid. It would be nice if one could use their own phone on their own provider, even if it's more expensive. Given all this, it may be just as cheap and convenient to track down a data-only provider, and just use SIP all the time.
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