Looking to buy or upgrade your @Home or HotSpot phone? Here's one place to start. They use UMA technology and not every phone has it.

What is UMA?

UMA is the acronym for Unlicensed Mobile Access. 

This is the technology that allows your telephone handset to freely switch between the GSM base station-tower and the wireless router-Internet networks for the transmission of voice and packet data. It is sometimes referred to  loosely as Wi-Fi and sometimes as 802.11 or to the very techie as IEEE 802.11b/g/n (draft)

Prior to UMA you had to be within fairly close proximity to a mobile carrier's antenna tower to be able to make and receive a phone call on your mobile device.

If you were in an area that did not have your carrier's coverage you would have to roam on another carrier's network. If no tower was available you would have to find a pay phone or do without. With UMA and a wireless router you are able to make phone calls at any location where you are able to connect to the wireless router with Internet access. Generally, and now that 802.11n (draft) routers are becoming more common,  a good signal throughout the house is the rule. Frequently you'll have a good signal from your neighbor's router as well. Which is why people need to enable the security function on their home wireless networks or you'll be snarfing up their bandwidth with your endless phone calls and Katy Perry ringtone purchases.

UMA is an implementation of the Generic Access Network (GAN) standard.

This is the standard that allows mobile voice, and mobile data to access Internet Protocol (IP) based networks. It is done over a secure connection between the handset and the wireless router. The carrier recognizes the connection as being another base station, much like they have at a tower, and handles the call and data requests in much the same way. When you are in motion your call is handed off from base station to base station based upon which towers you are "lighting up"  the most. Your UMA call is handed off from tower to tower with your wireless router seen as another tower in the system. T-Mobile's Unlimited HotSpot calling plan makes use of this with an UMA enabled phone and a wireless router. The phone must have the correct settings so T-Mobile can recognize the phone and subscriber in addition to being able to handle the GSM to WiFi signal hand-off. A UMA capable phone, if it doesn't have T-Mobile's settings installed, will not operate on an Unlimited HotSpot Calling plan. A Nokia 6301b set up for FIDO in Canada will not work as a UMA phone on T-Mobile's network, although it should do fine on FIDO's once you get to a wireless router.

Why Have a UMA Phone?

The advantage to the end user is an expansion in coverage. The end user can make calls where they formerly had limited or no coverage. There is also an improvement in signal. Most people are going to be quite close to the antenna. They can sit next to it if they want.  Data speeds over the wireless router are frequently greater (~54Mbps possible between handset and router) than from tower based connections. Some carriers also offer financial incentives for UMA use. This can include offering free routers, free UMA minutes and other incentives to use UMA services.

What Are Some UMA Capable Phones?

The following phones are UMA capable. With all phones you need to make sure they can be configured for your carrier. Not only do you have to be concerned about the phone accepting your SIM but also you need to ensure that the UMA settings in the phone can be configured so your phone and router can be recognized by your carrier as a base station. Check with your mobile service provider prior to acquiring any UMA device unless you are into playing with them and reselling them on eBay. Not all providers offer UMA services. T-Mobile devices are linked to searches for those devices.

T-Mobile Only

Samsung SGH-T709
Samsung SGH-T409
Samsung SGH-T339
Samsung Katalyst SGH-T739
Research In Motion BlackBerry® Curve™ 8320
Research In Motion BlackBerry® Curve™ - Sunset
Research In Motion BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900
Nokia 6301
Nokia 6301b (Fido in Canada)
Nokia 6300i (not the Nokia 6300 or 6300b)
Nokia 6136
Nokia 7510
T-Mobile Shadow™

SunCom Only

HP iPAQ 510 Voice Messenger

T-Mobile, AT&T,  some models others

Research In Motion BlackBerry Pearl 8120
Research In Motion BlackBerry 8820
Nokia 6086 

Manufacturers are offering devices, such as the Nokia N78, that will automatically authenticate to a wireless network.  This does not mean it will function with UMA. My N78 will not work with T-Mobile HotSpot at the moment. In fact it doesn't support VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) at all out of the box. I would have to load a third party VoIP cient like fring to use Internet calling. Because of this T-Mobile can't set up the device yo work with UMA.

Why Offer UMA Services?

The advantage to the carrier is it is able to delay the building of additional infrastructure or eliminate the need for some towers altogether. UMA also unloads calls from over-the-air channel, which is limited, and places them in alternative channels, such as the cable provider's cable if the mobile user is linked to the Internet via cable. If the mobile subscriber is linked to the Internet by DSL the call is routed over the telephone landline. No doubt the mobile carrier enjoys the irony of that.  My favorite combination was using a T-Mobile phone to talk for free while my home network was tethered to my AT&T Nokia N75 using my unlimited data plan. This cost shifting, cost avoidance and cost delaying makes offering incentives to the customer to use UMA fiscally reasonable for the mobile service provider.

A More Complete List of UMA Capable Devices

This list is not separated by carrier but there is overlap from the carrier specific list above. It does provide the GSM bands and the 802.11b/g designation of the device. Triband devices will need 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands to fully function on all North American carriers as GSM phones. They will need 900 MHz and 1800 MHz to fully function as GSM phones in other areas.

BenQ

 e72 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

BlackBerry

RIM 8120 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
RIM 8320 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
RIM Flip 8220 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
RIM BlackBerry® Curve™ - Sunset GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
RIM BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
RIM 8820 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

HP

iPAQ 510 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

HTC

Shadow II GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

LG

CL400 GSM/EDGE 850/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
KE520 GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

Motorola

A910 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
Z6w GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

Nokia

6086 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
6136 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
6301 GSM/EDGE 850 or 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
7510 GSM/EDGE 850 or 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

Sagem

my419x GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
my429x GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
my519x GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

Samsung

P180  GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
P200 GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
P220 GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
P250 GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
P260 GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
SGH-T339 GSM/EDGE 850/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
SGH-T409 GSM/EDGE 850 or 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
SGH-T709 GSM/EDGE 850/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g
SGH-T739 Katalyst GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

SIM Tech

N6000 GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 UMA WiFi b/g

Sony Ericsson

G705u GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800 UMTS/HSPDA 1900 UMA WiFi b/g

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