DailyTech - Philips Delivers UMA Phone Access

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Internet Philips Delivers UMA Phone Access
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - February 8, 2006 1:24 PM

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6 comment(s) - last by juancferrer.. on Feb 8 at 8:08 PM

Philips aims to save customers lots of money by allowing cell phone users to bypass their carriers

Philips announced today that it is in the process of developing and deploying UMA, or unlicensed mobile access telephone technology. UMA aims to reduce the cost of traditional wireless communications such as cellular phones and subscription services dramatically.

UMA works over 3G wireless technology but also is able to hitch a ride on wireless hotspots which will allow a customer's UMA phone to skip the cellular carrier altogether. Once connected, the UMA phone simply makes a connection through IP-based calling and Philips said that the connection switch will be seamless to users. According to Philips:

By using a single device, consumers can simplify their mobile experience by using a single phone number at home and on the go, benefiting from the fastest coverage available. Furthermore, given the cost benefits, operators can extend their service coverage and offer attractive billing plans to customers.

Philips says that UMA technology should be widely available by the end of this year, 2006.

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This sounds interesting, but...

By Shadowself on 2/8/2006 2:41:29 PM , Rating: 3

How do they handle the switch over between cellular and VoIP using hot spots?

If a call is intitiated where there is no hot spot then it starts out cellular. If the user moves (e.g., in a car) into a region where there is a hot spot does the call try to switch to VoIP using the hot spot? Is the switch over noticeable to the user? My assumption is that the switch over is not transparent to the user since as of today switching from cellular to VoIP is not a simple thing to do.

The opposite situation is also a concern, e.g., if the user starts a call using VoIP using a hot spot then moves out of range of that hot spot. Does the call drop and need to be re started with a cellular call?

RE: This sounds interesting, but...

By littlebitstrouds on 2/8/2006 3:09:10 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
Philips said that the connection switch will be seamless to users

I believe all your questions would be answered if you'd just read what they wrote?

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RE: This sounds interesting, but...

By mpc7488 on 2/8/2006 5:07:56 PM , Rating: 2

Shadowself has some valid points. It's worth asking "how" instead of taking every press release on blind faith, with marketing statements of "seamless" operations or a Phantom gaming console that "offers gamers a more exciting and compelling gaming experience than any other game console or PC on the market."

The Availability portion of the statement mentions that UMA hardware is available now, but UMA "technology" will be implemented by the end of 2006. I imagine they will need some measures in place to ensure that handoffs occur properly and calls are not dropped.

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RE: This sounds interesting, but...

By Zirconium on 2/8/2006 5:10:49 PM , Rating: 2

I believe he has a valid question. The press release is fairly vague about what they mean by connection switching. Does it happen during a call or not? It seems likely that the connection will only switch if you aren't on the phone already (i.e. if your call started out using the cellular network and you go near a hotspot, the call will stay cellular, but if you hang up, the next call will use VoIP). This of course poses the problem that if you start out near a hotspot and you go out of range, you lose your call. Not having seen this technology, I can't do more than speculate, but that is what we computer geeks seem to do best.

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RE: This sounds interesting, but...

By rushnrockt on 2/8/2006 7:37:33 PM , Rating: 2

Outside of asking whether the call switching can happen during the call or not, the question HOW really seems to hold little value. Most people here know next to nothing about the technical side of any kind of switching, so the main question should be "Got Proof?" Since as consumers, that's all we care about.

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