The telecoms industry has taken the first step in
allowing mobile phone users to roam between cellular and wireless
networks.
A new industry group, the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) group,
has been formed but, say experts, it has some way to go before
realistic specs can be produced.
The group includes major operators and network suppliers and
promises to let users make mobile calls over Wi-Fi networks in
homes and hotspots. Unfortunately, it has not said how it will do
that yet.
"This is a standardised wish-list for operators," said industry
expert Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis, after ploughing through
the 240 pages of specifications at the UMA site. "It doesn't come
up with that many answers."
The issue of roaming between cell phones and other networks has
become a hot one, as products are emerging that might do the job,
but operators have yet to put roaming together properly, even for
data.
UMA hopes to put together specifications for service providers
to offer roaming services. These would hand over calls between
cellular networks and networks using unlicensed bandwidth - in the
shape of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as ultra-wide band (UWB) and
WiMax in future.
The group's members include, among others, Alcatel, AT&T,
BT, Nokia, Siemens and T-Mobile.
"There are some great lines in the spec," said Bubley, pointing
out one section where the specification says that connections
through a public hotspot "may" require firewall configuration.
The specification also says using Wi-Fi "should not impact on
battery life", without specifying how to achieve that, he said.
The group is not limited to Wi-Fi, but wants to work with other
unlicensed technologies, such as Bluetooth or - in future - WiMax
or even UWB.
Bundling in calls across free spectrum is a good idea for
operators, especially if it fills in gaps in their coverage.
"A high factor in churn for mobile operators is the fact that
people's mobiles don't work at home," said Bubley.
A guaranteed cheap home connection through Wi-Fi could make
mobile plans more attractive, and fixed-line providers could use
UMA services to add mobile services through virtual operator
deals.
The specs seem to be aimed mainly at proposed services for
domestic or small services, such as BT's Bluephone.
The enterprise, meanwhile, is being targeted by a standards
effort from Motorola, Avaya and Proxim, called Seamless Converged
Communications Across Networks (SCCAN), which is being promoted by
the IEEE Standards and Technology Organisation. SCCAN aims to
support dual-mode handsets that can link to wireless PBXs in
offices and to cellular services.
"UMA is about extending the cellular experience into Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth," said Bubley. "SCCAN is about extending the PBX
experience out into wireless domain."
Peter Judge writes for Techworld