T-Mobile UMA
 

I dont have anything really to contribute here, only that the combination of UMA with T-Mobile is FREAKING AWESOME!

I was stuck at my buddies house who lives in the sticks, NO reception for anyone. He did however have Wi-Fi that i connected to and BAM, all calls, sms messages, data and everything else works perfectly fine.

Are there any other carriers that do this? I'm talking about WITH calls as well?

In the US no, in the UK one : Orange
Not sure about the rest of the world.

As long as you stay in the WiFi area you're fine. But the handoff between WiFi and cell tower makes UMA unusable in mixed environments. Dropped calls almost every time.

All depends on which OS you are using. With newer OS, I've had much better success handing off from Wifi to EDGE.

Best thing is when you are traveling abroad...turn off your mobile radio and let the UMA get locked on....I've had great success with this and for which reason I wont go to any other carrier than TMO

UMA is awesome. I do have one question though. I know when UMA is enabled, it doesn't take away minutes from my plan, I'm essentially calling for free (not counting my internet bill). What I want to know is this, is it free for long distance as well? If yes, how far? Other states? Other countries? I'm in the US (California).

I'd like to know this as well.

It all depends on the plan that you have.

By default, the UMA feature is available on any T-Mobile Blackberry that allows Voice over IP calling. If you add onto your plan a "hot spot" package, which allows free calling while using a WiFi network, then NO, you will not be billed for your UMA usage. If you do not have this plan, then the airtime you use will come out of your minutes as if you were calling normally over the TMobile network.

Do not mistake seeing the UMA feature and immediately translate that into free calling, you need to have the unlimited hotspot feature on your line. If you are unsure about this, it's best to call TMO and ask them directly. As far as long distance is concerned, it works the following:

- Calling using UMA is no different than calling using normal means...except instead of using TMO network cell tower, you are using a WiFi internet connection.

- If your normal rate plan allows you to call nationwide, the UMA would support it just the same.

- When traveling outside of your home coverage area (be it the USA), and you are on the UMA network, you can make calls to your local area only. For example, if you are traveling overseas in England, and connecting through UMA using the hotel's wifi, you can only call back home in the USA. If you call the hotel's lobby using your UMA, you will be billed as if you were sitting at your home calling abroad to England. This is something important to keep in mind.

Hope that helps some of you!

Let me mention one thing that may confuse people. Bounce's post is correct.

However, there has been a glitch with Tmobile billing from the start with UMA.

Some people, like me, are almost never charged for UMA calls. As in they don't show in the call log and they don't use minutes up. The phone of course logs them all, but not the Tmobile billing. The most likely to show up are calls to voicemail or Tmobile customer service. Basically those calls where the call hits another part of their system. I haven't calculated how many show in a while, but I think maybe between 10% and 20% do.

So, don't take the fact that calls don't show as meaning they are free. They use minutes up.

Thanks a lot for clearing that up, guys. I appreciate it.

Im pretty sure using calls through UMA DOES count against your plan regardless. I dont think its free. I could be wrong, but im sure its not free.

It depends on your plan. If you have what was originally called "T-Mobile @Home" then you pay an extra monthly fee and your UMA calls do NOT count against your minutes. I have no idea what that plan is called now.

Yeah that Tmob offering (hotspot@home or whatever) is about $10/month. That basically gets you unlimited calls from Wifi. But considering they now give you unlimited calls over their network for $50 it's not that exciting anymore imo.

It's now called "Unlimited HotSpot Calling".

"Make and receive unlimited nationwide calls over Wi-Fi both at home or at any U.S. T-Mobile HotSpot location anytime day or night."

It's exciting if you travel outside of the US and don't want to get hit with massive roaming charges!

Wirelessly posted (BB 7100i)

Being a bus driver I travel a lot, and when I was in Niagara Falls, ON last weekend, UMA was a god send. It saved me on roaming, and in areas of no TMO coverage, I can use my bus's wi-fi setup with Sprint's mobile broadband to keep my BB online with UMA.

Also, if you guys have been a TMO member for a long time, they are running a "secret" promo which gives you unlimited minutes on 1 line for $49.98 or 2 lines for $89.98 -- I know they are not really broadcasting this, but they are looking for members who have been with TMO for a long period of time and you call in and request this. It may only help those very few who use the cell phone a lot -- but this way it wont matter if you are on UMA or otherwise, it would be unlimited on the minutes side of things.

I have an unlocked 8250 with an American T-Mobile SIM in it. I am trying to activate the UMA feature whilst here in the UK, so that calls made to US tel numbers are taken from the free minutes bundled onto the tarriff?

I have established a wifi connection, but 'UMA' isn't displayed on screen? I have 2 questions;

1) Should 'gprs' be displayed in capitals when the mobile network is enabled?
2) Is the fact that the handset isn't a T-Mobile BB, have anything to do with the fact it isn't working?
3) Should it be activated from within the US, rather than the UK?


Any help would be greatfully received.

Thanks in advance.




Neil.

I don't believe that will work.
UMA is restricted to certain devices running on certain networks. For example, in the US only T-Mobile devices with T-Mobile SIM cards work on UMA.

Do you have a BlackBerry Data Plan? If not, that would explain the grps vs. GPRS.

Item number 2 is probably the reason it's not working. There are things that have to be installed for it to work with specific UMA providers. By things I mean certificates, settings, or something along those lines.

You'll have to try Google for it.