I travel a lot and would be able to significantly cut the costs of my phone calls using this technology. If I end up switching to T-mobile I'll probably get a cheap UMA capable phone to use for calls to the US when I am overseas.
This is exactly what I use UMA for. I travel outside the country quite a bit. I always set my UMA blackberry to Wifi only (so it does not switch back to the cell network when there is poor wifi). I always get all my SMS, emails, voice calls directly to mobile phone with no roaming charges. I found a great article a few months ago on a blog site that really helped me when traveling internationally. Check it out: http://www.assassin711.com/?p=92
I've been researching this for a bit now, and I've yet to find anything to prevent a software solution to add this to N900 (Yes, it requires the AMR codec, but since N900 is 3G, it should already support that). I created a Brainstorm to discuss the implementation here, and a brainstorm discussion thread here. Please go to the Brainstorm page and give it a "thumbs up" vote if you'd like to see this happen!
I'm working on developing this on my own in my free time, but without active community or Nokia support, it will probably take quite awhile.
This is correct but not for the reason the T-Mobile sales guy indicated. Its isn't a conflict with the devices so much as UMA or GAN relies upon a feature within the MSC or call server. It is more likely that the T-Mobile network topology is not configured in a way that allows a single MSC or call server to perform UMTS, 2G and UMA concurrently. The radio network be it UMTS,GSM or UMA/GAN is homed to a MSC call server that support your geographical area. UMA to GSM handovers are difficult. Put the soft handovers of UMTS on top of this and it becomes a nightmare to provide a level of service without tons of maintenance to prevent an obscene high number of call drops between radio technologies.
Neither is correct :-)
There are several 3G-enabled UMA-phones available to date.
Check http://www.umatoday.com for updates.
I've been researching this for a bit now, and I've yet to find anything to prevent a software solution to add this to N900 (Yes, it requires the AMR codec, but since N900 is 3G, it should already support that). I created a Brainstorm to discuss the implementation here, and a brainstorm discussion thread here. Please go to the Brainstorm page and give it a "thumbs up" vote if you'd like to see this happen!
I'm working on developing this on my own in my free time, but without active community or Nokia support, it will probably take quite awhile.
This would be a great idea.. I wish I had a little knowledge to be contrubute..
UMA callling is the best feature of t-mobile betwork( prob the only good feature). For instance, i have terrible service at my appartment and with UMA, I dont have to worry for call drop. But the best thing is being able to call US from abroad with no international charges. I guess for now, I will carry my bb 8320 around untill, Uma upgrade is avaliable for n900.
The Nokia E73 is announced with the Cisco Connect UMA capability, what is the bottleneck on N900 that we cannot do this? Is it the software or the hardware, I still am confused with it. Once when I talked with UMA service tech on Tmobile, he told me it has to do with the hardware and I have said so on the forums but from the inner heart I still think it has to do with the software since all the hardware are same.
I have recently bought a used N6301 on eBay just because it can do UMA and I have no signal around my home. It is a pain to swap the SIM over from my N900 when I at home (or remember to divert calls to the 6301). I find the 6301 UMA feature very useful and would pay for and app that enabled it on my N900. I don't really want to move to a Blackberry (who seem to be the only folks actively supporting it).
I don't need handover between 3G and wifi and I doubt that this would be a must have for many. If I start or receive a call at home, I am not likely to move out of wifi range while I am on the call. Conversely, if I receive a call when I am outside, I know not to go into the house until I finish the call!
