T-Mobile goes UMA

Joseph Laszlo | August 15, 2006, 05:29 PM

T-Mobile's quietly begun a trial of a UMA (unlicensed mobile access) service--that is, a service that uses a dual-mode handset to enable cellular and wi-fi based mobile calls.

This is pretty cool, and very expected.

Verizon and AT&T, though they may try an FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) play at some point, are too worried about cannibalizing their landline business to move fast here.

But T-Mobile (like the new Sprint-Nextel and Alltel) has no landline business to cannibalize, and also (uniquely) has its Starbucks-centric hotspot business to capitalize on. So why not offer a calling plan designed to encourage at-home usage (and route that usage off the GPRS/EDGE network), and really bundle a calling plan with T-Mobile Hotspot for the Starbucks-based chatters of the world.

For all the techno-utopian bluster about cellphone/wifi combo handsets driving the traditional wireless carriers out of business, this was never going to happen. Why would the carriers subsidize a handset technology that makes them obsolete? And if they don't subsidize it, consumers don't buy it.

Should point out that Engadget's known about this for some time. Photos of the handset (a Samsung) and base stations are there for the viewing.