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T-Mobile picks up Nokia 6136 for UMA launch {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 26th 2006 10:47PM 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."
T-Mobile picks up Nokia 6136 for UMA launch {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 26th 2006 2:09PM 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.
T-Mobile picks up Nokia 6136 for UMA launch {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 26th 2006 12:07AM 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.
T-Mobile's UMA goodies exposed {Engadget Mobile}
Aug 3rd 2006 2:36AM T-Mobile rulez. Awesome technology that works. Voice quality will be better, guaranteed. For those who dont think there is enough benefits, get off from this blog as you dont understand the technology.
International roaming. You can make free calls from any wifi from outside the US (free to T-Mobile, they might want to charge you some money for it, but considering they are a smart company it wont be much. Think about it, you just have to hit the GSM network and until then you are travelling over internet. So, no roaming agreements needed as long as calls are wifi originated. Those who understand GSM will get this benefit better)
Free calls from wifi within the US. What may this cover? Not only your home, maybe school, work, public library (use at your own risk), coffee shop etc. How about this: ANY OTHER STORE CAN START ADVERTISING FREE WIFI CALLS AND ATTRACT CUSTOMERS JUST LIKE A LOT OF THEM ALREADY ARE OFFERING FREE WIFI INTERNET BROWSING.
How about quality, from home, the quality will be awesome. You wont need a home phone again (for those of you who have one). Your home phone is the UMA phone which will be travelling with you.
For those who think that during a wifi session, internet browising on phones doesnt work, get it checked out before blaming that service is not allowed. It has to be allowed according to www.umatechnology.org, and if T-Mobile and other vendors are able to get voice over wifi, what makes you think they cant get data.
Why do you think T-Mobile wants to push this UMA service out? Because they are a smart service provider with excellent technical decision making brains.
DONT COMPARE THIS TO ANY OTHER JUNK TECHNOLOGY, SKYPE ETC. BECAUSE IF YOU DO, AGAIN, YOU DONT UNDERSTAND THE TECHNOLOGY. THIS ONE LETS YOU MAKE WIFI CALLS ON AN EXISTING GSM NETWORK.
And those who think it is just the handset that will enable this calling WHAT? How can you because then you would have every service provider trialing this, not T-Mobile. It needs network. Handset alone cannot do it.
And I think some people doubt the network stability, read this and you might want to switch from cingular.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/15183046.htm
