intrigued by UMA

[mystic205]

Hi folks,

I am totally intrigued by UMA and would consider TMO for that alone but have concerns over coverage & use of a high speed network.. Do you TMO folks roam extensively and easily onto the other GSM carriers networks or do you find times when you are in snail mode?

thx

p.s. Its ok not to tell me to look at coverage maps.. i am capable of that, I am asking a practical question here.

[canuckinnh]

I have been on Tmo since 2004. My experience has been good coverage in major areas. They have partnered with regional and AT&T giving them pretty extensive reach. Roaming is not a problem. Also they are constantly expanding all the time.

I have a BB 8320 with the UMA cability and it works very well. At home with the router it provides excellent service and does cut down on my total minutes.

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[berryite]

Originally Posted by mystic205

Hi folks,

I am totally intrigued by UMA and would consider TMO for that alone but have concerns over coverage & use of a high speed network.. Do you TMO folks roam extensively and easily onto the other GSM carriers networks or do you find times when you are in snail mode?

thx

I would give T-Mobile an A+ grade as a carrier. I couldn't possibly be happier with them. Coverage for me is excellent and where it isn't I have UMA. I can't imagine using any other carrier.

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[clitrenta]

I love the UMA but for a totally different reason. For some reason my house (two story colonial) is something of a dark hole for T-Mo's signal. It still works but it is somewhat weak. My BB automatically switches to UMA mode when I walk in the house, assuring me that i will always have a signal and no dropped calls. I can also use the Internet a lot faster. For some strange reason, the Audible app only lets me download books with UMA, not a straight T-Mo signal. Weird but whatever works. It's always nice having the UMA option when the regular signal isn't that great.

[bagOdonuts]

If you have roommates that play online video games or stream music online all off the same router, you may have a little voice distortion.

Other then that I save anywhere from 300 minutes to 500 with it a month.

Damn roommate eating my free minute bandwith!

The hand over works smooth also. Unless you turn off the wifi during a call.

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[bagOdonuts]

It's also awesome if you up in vermont and they have wireless internet...or anywhere heavily wooded in the middle of no where.

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[SandAngel]

My uma sucks... and is good also

Love it because my family went from using about 2000 minutes a month to about 200 so it more than make"s up for the cost because I could drastically lower my minute plan.

On the other hand i drop my calls every freaking time I'm on the phone and leave the house. None of our phones hand off the signal well and we all have blackberries.
I also don't think the intenet browsing is any faster at all while i'm on UMA. maybe it's just my area because I hear people all the time on here saying they browse faster and they have a better signal strength using UMA.... but i find it no different at all.

i think it all depends where you live. It's an ADD ON FEATURE so you can alays just try it out and then cancel if you don't like it. downside is if you buy a specific Wifi phone then it still works with regular service but maybe you passed on another phone with you might have liked better had you known you weren't going to use the wifi.

[SandAngel]

Originally Posted by bagOdonuts

If you have roommates that play online video games or stream music online all off the same router, you may have a little voice distortion.

Other then that I save anywhere from 300 minutes to 500 with it a month.

Damn roommate eating my free minute bandwith!

The hand over works smooth also. Unless you turn off the wifi during a call.

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YEP YEP YEP... you will get crackle calls and dropped calls if someone is online gaming at the same time

[nobius]

The unlimited calling, is it to US numbers only? What about Canada numbers? I just added the service today and am trying to figure out if I can call my friends in Calgary.

[canuckinnh]

The UMA calling with T-mobile @home covers US only.

You can pay for a discounted international calling rate which is 4 cents a minute to Canada.

The dropping of calls usually happens when other wireless devices are using the same router.

Using the T-mobile router and latest firmware (Dec 2008) eliminated most of the dropped calls.

[Vodka Smash]

I'm happy with UMA in my brief experience with it. It does eat up the minutes but at times it's inconsistent however I'm positive it's because I'm feeding off my work wi-fi.

[mixoplex]

I switched over to Tmobile because of the loyalty plan. But I had a VZ Storm so no UMA for me. But then I gave up on the storm and went with the curve 8900 and setup the UMA.. it works great for me. I have unlimited minutes so it does not matter to me but I got junk signal ( I also live on a colonial ) but now it hops on the WIFI and Ooooo Laaaa Laaaaa works grreat.. I have 2 router so one will be just for my phone.. Heheh.. I will be getting another router to to set as an access point and the longer antennaes to boost the signal..

[dervari]

It doesn't mater how many routers you have. If they all use the same broadband connection the result will be the same.

[jamestbrewer]

Originally Posted by dervari

It doesn't mater how many routers you have. If they all use the same broadband connection the result will be the same.

Not true, the number of routers is not actually as important as how you set them up. I have 2 routers, one for my computers/consoles and one for UMA only. The UMA router has priority over the computer one. The same can be done with one router, just have to set up rules so that all UMA traffic has top priority. The ability to do this depends on the router.