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In a few days I'll lead a meeting in a room that does not provide any phone signal. However, during this meeting we have to call a person who can not attend this meeting in person.

To make the call possible, I had the following idea:

  1. Place some smartphone S in a room where the phone signal is strong enough to perform calls.
  2. Place a computer C in the meetingroom.
  3. Setup a connection between S and C via WiFi with which the call audio can be transmitted in both ways.
  4. Before the meeting starts, use S to call the required person.
  5. Use C to actually talk to the required person.

My question boils down to: How can I setup the two-way audio connection between a smartphone and a (Windows) computer as described in step 3?

Concerning the phone OS: Android would definitely be preferred, but I might be able to get my hands on an iPhone as well.

Question How can I call phones from my pc using a mobile phone connected to my pc? is related, but only applies to Linux-based operating systems for the computer.

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  • Do you have any particular objection to Skype?
    – Tetsujin
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 10:38
  • Skype (and a potentially a small amount of credit to call landlines) would probably be the easiest way to achieve this. What you are attempting sounds painfully contrived when simpler tools are available.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 11:28
  • Thanks for the comments and proposed solutions so far. And yeah, I considered to use Skype already. Since we're a non-profit organization we try to solve as much stuff as cheaply as possible. The meeting will be kinda long - and I'm not sure how expensive Skype credits are in my country. So Skype would definitely be last resort - but if there is any chance to solve this with other (possibly free) technologies, I'd prefer to use them.
    – Hauke P.
    Commented May 18, 2015 at 14:50
  • If you use google hangouts almost all calls to us and Canada are free. You can dial the person into the meeting from inside the hangout. We use this for a non profit advisory board I am on when someone can't attend but needs to give a report.
    – caskey
    Commented May 19, 2015 at 3:42

2 Answers 2

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The best solution would be to throw away Smartphone S, install Skype on Computer C (which presumably has an internet connection via the Wifi you mentioned) and then initiate a Skype call to the phone line of the person who cannot attend the meeting.

All this requires is a set of speakers and a microphone on the computer, no other hardware. You would have needed these two items as a minimum if you went with your original plan anyway.

At worst all you need in this case is some credit on skype to call the person, if they can install Skype on their laptop or mobile then you would not need this credit at all.

Skype should be able to cancel the remote signal from being picked up by the microphone.

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I saw a headphone for PC on the web that has Bluetooth in it. It is expensive but it should work if the distance is not too big. It is called roccat kave xtd.

I know it is not WiFi, but this should achieve something similar.

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