T-Mobile picks up Nokia 6136 for UMA launch

by Chris Ziegler, posted Aug 25th 2006 at 8:09AM

Perhaps sensing our discontent with their decision to launch Samsung's mediocre T709 when their UMA network goes live, T-Mobile has added a second handset in -- you guessed it -- Nokia's 6136. To be fair, it could've been planned as a two-handset launch all along, but allow us to revel for a moment in the thought that maybe, just maybe we had something to do with it, k? So yeah, about that 6136: it's the same one we've already told you about, the one being tested in Nokia's native Finland, 'cept this time it's all wrapped up in purty T-Mobile packaging. Besides adding a microSD slot, we're told battery life is marginally better than the T709's, but the 6136 get a flimsier-feeling shell in trade. A million thanks go out to our tipsters feeding us these details; with a rumored September release date bearing down, we reckon the rest of us shouldn't have much longer to wait.

Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, T-Mobile, GSM

Tags: 6136, nokia, samsung, t-mobile, t709, uma, wifi

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Pit @ Aug 25th 2006 10:28AM

thanks for this information

Neutral

Will @ Aug 25th 2006 5:50PM

This seems like a very smart move for T-mobile. Here in California, T-Mobile's coverage is good, but no where near Verizon. Because of where I live, I have a choice of Verizon, or nothing, so the ability to use wi-fi at home is perfect. I know that I am not the only one in this predicament, so I with T-Mo the best.

Neutral

GODMODE @ Aug 25th 2006 7:37PM

For this year, as I have said before - there will be 3 total handsets with UMA.

Or maybe not ;)

Neutral

shizzy @ Aug 26th 2006 12:09AM

Just want to make it clear, only because Nokia handset info was leaked out today doesnt mean T-Mobile started testing the handset recently. Testing has been going on for months, the only reason you havent heard of Nokia before is because Nokia was way behind Samsung in compliance with the specs (yes, thats true).

Thanks to T-Mobile Nokia handset is even launching, if it was another carrier like Cingular (whom I dont like anyways), they would have kicked out Nokia handset and forced them to fix their bugs just the way they kicked out Nokia after asking them to trial a UMA Network solution with them.

Also, GODMORE, you can forget about 3 handsets launching this year. If you are thinking of Motorola, let me make it clear it is already out of race and will make an entry probably next yeat (definitely not before that).

T-Mobile has not dont any extensive testing on any other handset other than Samsung T709 and Nokia 6136. If I was a customer, I would buy Samsung if offered both.

Remember guys, nothing against Nokia, but the only reason I am recommending Samsung is because you handset is no more your regular GSM only handset. It is now a GSM + UMA (dual-mode) handset. You are better off buying a handset what will understand IP better in communicating with the GSM backbone.

Neutral

formertmobileemployee @ Aug 26th 2006 12:13PM

Chances are this will not be released till after the 20 of September there is a Management meeting in Salt Lake City Utah then, and every TMOBILE manager in the country will be there, I was just terminated and was supposed to go. It is called the Retail Summit, with Robert Dotson.

Neutral

shizzy @ Aug 26th 2006 2:10PM

formertmobileemployee, I believe you are from the Seattle Area (or California). Were you let go because you were part of the handset team? Just kidding...

BTW, Samsung for sure is getting launched September 12, Nokia's fate will be decided this Monday, they just need to fix the handover problems that should have been fixed a long time back.

It will be a great success since the Pilot Programs have been very very successfull and have exceeded T-Mobile expectations, there is a huge waiting list already for people who want to get onto this pilot.

Neutral

shizzy @ Aug 26th 2006 10:48PM

UMA . . . and beyond
March 22, 2006
By Gerry Blackwell

The not particularly momentous launch of Nokia’s UMA-enabled 6136 phone at the 3GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona last month touched off an interesting, and surprisingly far-reaching, debate among industry provocateurs about the very future of telephony. We take it even further.

Does UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), a technology that allows GSM carriers to seamlessly hand off calls between cellular and Wi-Fi networks, spell doom for VoIP service providers such as Vonage and Skype? Do mobile carriers have more to gain or to lose by offering UMA-style fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) services? Will FMC radically alter the telephony landscape? Or are other far more powerful mountain-leveling forces at work?

UMA gives mobile carriers the technological wherewithal to offer multi-domain, converged wireless and wireline services. Subscribers can use a single handset to make VoIP calls using a carrier-provided service over a Wi-Fi network at home or office, and to make wireless calls over the cellular network when mobile. One phone, one bill, service everywhere. And when you move from domain to domain, the phone hands off the call without interruption.

British Telecom has been offering its UMA-based BT Fusion service since the fall of 2005. UK-based Jupiter Research senior analyst Ian Fogg says BT Fusion has already attracted over 30,000 subscribers. Though small in the greater scheme of things, that number is an indication that users see value in this proposition.

Threat or promise?
But while UMA/FMC may be a no-brainer for users, will mobile carriers see the benefit? It's interesting, Fogg notes, that in the UK, it wasn't one of the mobile carriers that embraced UMA first, but BT, primarily a wireline carrier. "Certainly the received wisdom is that mobile operators have most to gain," he says. "But maybe they've actually got more to lose."

In Europe, especially, a small but significant chunk of cellular calls are made from home. So, yes, offering FMC services may help mobile carriers lure customers from wireline service providers, especially VoIP providers. They will gain that additional revenue, but they also stand to lose revenue because subscribers will now be making VoIP calls from home and office instead of cell calls, at much lower per-minute rates.

If you believe mobile carriers will decide that the customer-winning benefits outweigh the revenue-diminishing risks—and the expense—of implementing UMA or something similar, it makes sense that VoIP service providers, especially Vonage-style providers, will be in jeopardy. Why would subscribers stay with a Vonage if they could get the same low-cost VoIP service for home from a much better established mobile carrier—and get fixed-mobile convergence, and get bill consolidation?

San Francisco-based journalist Andrew Orlowski, riffing in The Register on the introduction of the Nokia 6136, suggested for basically these reasons that UMA spelled lights out for both the Vonages and the Skypes of this world. "Utter bollocks!" retorted UK-based consultant Martin Geddes at his Web site, Telepocalypse. (That's Brit for 'horse feathers,' only less polite.) Not that Geddes sets great store by Vonage, UMA, or even Skype. He has another, much more challenging take on how the telephony world is unfolding and where UMA and FMC fit.

Geddes describes his business as consulting about "the collision of the IP and telecom industries." Clients include handset manufacturers, and more recently, carriers. He helps companies come up with the right business models for long-term success in a rapidly changing world.

"Things like UMA," he says, "are simply perpetuating the old model of vertical integration of network and service."

Neutral

larry thibeault @ Sep 25th 2006 12:10PM

does anyone know what the average range for a WI/Fi connection on a handset is? how close do i have to be to the access point before i cant connect anymore?
thanks any info you can give me would be great!!!

Neutral

EssexREalMan @ Aug 2nd 2007 12:12PM

I am a TMobile customer from the days of the parrot. I forgot the original name, but it went to VoiceStream and now TMobile. I am happy with their customer service. This service should even more enhance my satisfaction. I am planning to wait for the return of the Nokia telephone before I buy the service. Of course I could probably get in without the two year commitment if I buy it elsewhere.

At any rate I am looking forward to ordering and using this. By the way, I spent over an hour asking questions and getting RIGHT ANSWERS from Tamara, who was in Maine. She and others like her are why I have chosen to stay with TM.

I hope this is a relevant post. I am also glad I found this service, as it seems to be to mobile phone service what Consumer Reports is to so many other consumer products and services.

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