Steve Shaw over at UMA Today posted an article already back in February on using your UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) GSM/Wifi phone abroad. Here’s what he had to say:
"For me, making a call with my US [United States] SIM when I was in Barcelona cost about $1/minute. With
a UMA-enabled phone, technically I should be able to connect to any
Wi-Fi AP and calls would be local and therefore billed at my normal per
minute. But mobile operators like the roaming
revenues, so most UMA service plans disable the use of Wi-Fi access
outside the home country."
UMA is a great technology. However, the above example shows once more what operators sometimes do to great technology when they and not the users are in control. Compare such an offer to what you can do with open GSM/UMTS/Wifi phones such as many Nokia N-series and E-series phones as well as many Microsoft Mobile equipped PDA phones these days that can run open, non operator restricted VoIP software that works anywhere around the world. You are the consumer, you have the choice…
Background:
- For a technical primer on UMA, take a look here.
- For a technical primer of SIP and comparison to UMA, take a look here.