[kickinit]

I have a 8320 curve and when i connect to wifi, I have a UMA at the top right corner with a tower. Does this mean my wifi is connected? I Dont have the little purple circle symbol by the wifi either.

[John Clark]

If it says UMA then your wifi is connected. All voice and data is going over wifi. Each theme displays your coverage differently but you can't have UMA without having wifi.

[kickinit]

ok. thanks!!

[negativez0]

All voice and data is going over wifi.

Does the voice only go over the wifi if you subscribe to tmobile's @home service?

[John Clark]

Yes. However, any Tmobile subscriber with an 8320 can use UMA. You don't need the @home subscription to use UMA. You only need the @home subscription if you don't want your UMA minutes to come out of your plan minutes. H@H gives you unlimited wifi/uma calling.

I don't have h@h and but I use UMA all the time.

[kickinit]

So basically when i switch over to uma and im using it for data use, my minutes are being used, even though i have unlimited data?

Yes. However, any Tmobile subscriber with an 8320 can use UMA. You don't need the @home subscription to use UMA. You only need the @home subscription if you don't want your UMA minutes to come out of your plan minutes. H@H gives you unlimited wifi/uma calling.

I don't have h@h and but I use UMA all the time.

[John Clark]

No. If you switch over to UMA then voice will come out of your regular minute plan and data will come over wifi. Data use has nothing to do with voice minutes.

[BBCurious]

Hi John Clark.

I'm a BB virgin on the verge of purchasing the 8320 for use on a T-mobile plan. I've been catching up on your posts for the past few hours.

They're very informative, but I haven't found (or understood?) the answer to my questions. Perhaps you, or someone else reading this, could help me out?

Here goes:

I'm trying to figure out how to structure my T-mobile service plan to optimize my BB without spending an arm and a leg on unneccessary service items.

I plan to use the 8320 as a phone and also for text messaging, e-mail and occasional surfing. I make international calls from the US and often travel abroad, so I'd like to use wifi calling. I'd like to be able to use the 8320 for all these things in the U.S. and also while traveling.

The T-mobile rep told me I'll need to add a Text Messaging plan, a Blackberry Unlimited E-mail Add-on plan (will only be using personal e-mail, not corporate), a Blackberry Unlimited International E-mail plan, plus the HotSpot plan.

Is that true?!!? It would add an unaffordable $55 to my monthly bill and change my mind about buying the phone.

Thanks for any input,

A.

[jbreeden]

*By default*. TM's UMA (Universal Media Access) sends ALL traffic (Voice AND Data) through TM's UNC controller. Voice goes to TM's RAN and data is sent out TM's ip gateway. Data traffic does not go directly from the wifi access point to the destination, it instead routes through TM's network.

Simply put, UMA is tunneling GSM/GPRS through an IPSEC tunnel to TM's network. It's a liitle more complicated, but this is good enough for a intuitive understanding of UMA.

Your BB finds the UMA gateways (UNC) via a DNS lookup and establishes an ipsec tunnel with the UNC. All traffic, voice and data is then routed through the ipsec tunnel.

So in order for your wifi ap at home to work with uma it must support ipsec passthrough and the firewall must have the ipsec ports open (udp ports 500, 4500,50 and 51).

UMA works at TM's hotspots because TM opens all ipsec port to TM's UMA UNCs by default. All traffic passes through the ipsec tunnel, avoiding the need to login to the hotspot's nework via the hotspot's webpage.

The T-Mobile Browser exception:

There are two modes to run T-Mobile's browser in, Internet and Wi-Fi (see setup/adavnced configuration/browser).

When the TM browser is in Internet mode, all data goes through the ipsec tunnel to TM's network and out to the internet.

In Wi-Fi mode, the browser sends all traffic directly to the destination avoiding TM's UNC gateway. In other words, all voice will go through UMA to the UNC gateway and T-Mobile's browse traffic will go dirctly over IP.

If you use the Wi-Fi browser at home through you wireless ap, it will most likely be faster, avoiding the added latency of routing through the UNC before hitting the internet.

The ability of routing IP directly through IP instead of through the UNC gateway is application specific. The particular application need to be written to take advantage of this. Put another way, the only application on a BB that avoids sending data through the UNC is T-Mobile's browser. There is one other exception that I know of. Midp SSH can be configured to do IP directly and avoid the UNC gateway (and added latency).

You can test this behavior yourself. Go to a t-moble hotspot. You will see TM's *Internet* browser can browse anywhere on the web. Switch to the *Wi-Fi* browser and you'll find the browser redirects you to the hot-spot login page.

The Wi-Fi browser can be used for getting UMA to work on hotspots that demand a login via a web page.

For instance, Safeway now offers free hotspot at their stores but you need to login to their web page first.

Connect with your BB to Safeways hotspot. It will *appear* to fail but in reality it has associated with Safeway's ap and gotten an ip lease via DHCP.

The apparent failure is just that the BB hasn't been able to establish an ipsec tunnel to TM's UNC because all traffic is blocked by Safeway's AP firewall until you login.

Fire up the TM browser in Wi-Fi mode and try to go anyware. You will be directed to Safeway's login page. Login and wait a min. and UMA will connect, you are on the air.

This technique has worked for me with a number of wireless networks that demand a login first. Of course as before, the wireless network needs to support ipsec passthrough and open up the ipsec ports when you login.

BTW: You can get the architecture and protocol specs for UMA (which is part of 3GPP) at umatoday.com.

Hope this helps all .....

[Augustus]

Dear jbreeden,

This is a LOT of complex information and I am a total lay person when it comes to my new Curve. Let me ask a basic question. In simple terms, can my T-Mobile Curve (with Wifi) be used overseas to make international phone calls back to the US via the Wifi connection, for much less cost than a non-Wifi call? I am told that it can. If so, HOW (again, in simple terms, please) can one do this??? Do I have to connect to a Wifi network in the foreign country (e.g., at my hotel) and then call? If so, how do I do this (i.e., connect to Wifi and make the call)? Can you explain this step-by-step, or direct me to a source that can?

Many thanks,
Augustus

[jbreeden]

>[QUOTE=Augustus;84730]Dear jbreeden,
>
>In simple terms, can my T-Mobile Curve (with Wifi) be used overseas
>to make >international phone calls back to the US via the Wifi
>connection, for much less >cost than a non-Wifi call?

A qualified yes. There is nothing stopping you from doing this. As long as your curve can associate with the access point and login to T-Mobile's UMA UNC it will work (the process is automatic and transparent to you). If you search the forums, you will find people doing this all the time.

If you have H@H from t-mobile for $20 a month, then all the voice and data is "free" when using UMA no matter where you are on the planet.

If you use any wireless hotspot (usa or overseas) that blocks UMA ports (ipsec) for any reason, then UMA won't work. This isn't a UMA problem. it's a hotspot problem - it's how the particular wireless hotspot is setup.The owner of the hotspot has every right to set that hotspot up any way they want. If the hotspot blocks UMA you're just SOL, you'll need to try other hotspots until you find one open to UMA.

If you are technically proficient enough, the curve contains troubleshooting tools to identify WHY a curve will not login to UMA through a peticular hotspot. This data can often be used to find a workaround.

If you're not technically proficient, then you'll need to just keep trying different hotspots until you find one that works.

>If so, HOW (again, in simple terms, please) can one do this???
>Do I have to connect to a Wifi network in the foreign country
>(e.g., at my hotel) and then call? If so, how do I do this
>(i.e., connect to Wifi and make the call)?
>Can you explain this step-by-step, or direct me to a source that can?

Yes, you need to connect to a wifi network in order to use UMA regardless of where you are in the world.

As an aside, the UMA protocol standard defines both WiFi (802.11x) and Bluetooth as physical layers for UMA, though at this time no one has implemented UMA over Bluetooth. I think we will see it in the future.

You make a UMA call the same way you make a RAN (cell) call, punch in the number and hit the send button, it's "transparent" to the enduser (you).

As far as the "step by step" in setting up UMA and making a call on the curve, that's an RTFM question (if you don't know what RTFM means you can google it :-). You can download the curve's manual at blackberry.com. The faqs and howtos and forums on this site, blackberryforums.com and others also are full of the info you are looking for. Google is your friend.

Personally I think UMA is as disruptive a technology as the cell phone system itself and has a fantastic future. It has the potential to end landline use altogether. (the cellular phone system, another great technology developed at Bell Labs and first introduced by the Bell System - the *real* AT&T - in Chicago in 1978).

In this case, the term "disruptive technology" is a GOOD thing. It's an innovation that shakes up the old order.

Good Luck

[John Clark]

Wow! Excellent write-ups, jbreeden!!

[jbreeden]

Wow! Excellent write-ups, jbreeden!!

Thanx!

Looks like Voicestream's acquisition of Mobilestar's wireless network (now T-Mobile and T-Mobile HotSpots respectively) may finally pay off with UMA :-)

TMo needs more UMA handsets

[Augustus]

Reply to jbreeden

Many thanks. I will start looking for the details in the sources you provided.

Augustus