Do Carriers Need UMA?
Filed in archive General by Dameon Welch-Abemathy on November 9, 2007
can use WiFi to make and receive calls, send and receive text messages and browse the web. The GSM protocol is encapsulated into an IPSec (VPN) tunnel and sent over the phone's WiFi connection to the Internet. The phone transparently decides which way the traffic will go-over WiFi or GSM. It's cool technology, but is it necessary? Can a regular WiFi-enabled mobile handset get much of the same functionality? The answer after the break.
Short answer: Yes, assuming automatic failover is not a requirement.
Truphone and Gizmo Project both offer WiFi calling on WiFi-enabled Nokia handsets. Truphone has really set up a nice system for managing access to WiFi access points and whatnot, whereas Gizmo's setup is not quite so automatic. Certainly with some time and effort, a mobile carrier could develop a Truphone-like system for handling this.
An SMS app could be written that listens for SMS over an IP network and routes it into the phone just like it came from the mobile phone network. You could also send SMSes over the IP network as well, if there was no GSM signal.
The phone could, theoretically, auto-detect which network it's on-similar to how the iPhone does it-and use the appropriate network for data service. Use WiFi if available, otherwise switch to the mobile phone network.
How about handing off a call between WiFi and the mobile phone network? Use a method similar to how GrandCentral does it. Push the star key during a call, and the method you're not connected with rings. You answer, hang up the old call, and you've switched. It's not transparent, but at least you can switch back and forth.
From an end user standpoint, the UMA solution sounds a lot easier. However, a mobile operator could use the above recipe to do a "proof of concept" without too much effort. Who knows, it might be deployable that way.
What do you think about this idea? Too impractical? Do you have a way to do this without UMA? Let me know in the comments.
Hat tip to Andy Abramson for planting this idea in my mind.
Truphone and Gizmo Project both offer WiFi calling on WiFi-enabled Nokia handsets. Truphone has really set up a nice system for managing access to WiFi access points and whatnot, whereas Gizmo's setup is not quite so automatic. Certainly with some time and effort, a mobile carrier could develop a Truphone-like system for handling this.
An SMS app could be written that listens for SMS over an IP network and routes it into the phone just like it came from the mobile phone network. You could also send SMSes over the IP network as well, if there was no GSM signal.
The phone could, theoretically, auto-detect which network it's on-similar to how the iPhone does it-and use the appropriate network for data service. Use WiFi if available, otherwise switch to the mobile phone network.
How about handing off a call between WiFi and the mobile phone network? Use a method similar to how GrandCentral does it. Push the star key during a call, and the method you're not connected with rings. You answer, hang up the old call, and you've switched. It's not transparent, but at least you can switch back and forth.
From an end user standpoint, the UMA solution sounds a lot easier. However, a mobile operator could use the above recipe to do a "proof of concept" without too much effort. Who knows, it might be deployable that way.
What do you think about this idea? Too impractical? Do you have a way to do this without UMA? Let me know in the comments.
Hat tip to Andy Abramson for planting this idea in my mind.
Permalink: Do Carriers Need UMA?
Tags:
truphone
uma
gizmo+project
gsm
wifi
2007
november+2007
carriers+need
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