UMA/WiFi Calling?

Hey all.

Ok, I'm aware that there have been threads under this forum regarding UMA (or WiFi Calling, whatever you want to call it). But I want to bring it to the fore.

I have T-Mobile, which I'm happy with and I'm not switching, so that's not an issue. I love that my Curve 8900 has UMA because the cell phone reception where I live is, for all intents and purposes, dead. Thank goodness I can route my calls through my router! Not only that, but anywhere there's WiFi, if I like, and they permit it, I can route calls over a WiFi network. On several occasions I've gotten out of a 'lack of cell signal' jam because I've been able to route calls over a WiFi network, thanks to UMA.

I'm due to upgrade my phone (I have to, because it's on its last leg, even though for the most part, it works fine). I was about to upgrade to the 9780, but hold your horses! The Bold 9900 is announced, and now I must have it.

Unless, it doesn't have UMA. I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone if the 9900 has UMA or not. All I can say is, UMA is by far my favorite feature of my Blackberry. I'm used to the Blackberry, so I don't want to switch to an iPhone, or Android, or anything else.

Bottom line is, if the Bold 9900 does not feature UMA, I will not get this phone, as much as I want to (and believe me, I want to). It's become too important of a feature not to have. I feel if the 9900 doesn't have UMA, I'll feel like I'm settling for a lesser Blackberry.

So(!), my question to anyone who knows (or think they know :) ), does the Bold 9900 have UMA or WiFi Calling?

Ok, I'm spent.

This is far from definitive, but I thought I read it will NOT have UMA as has been implemented on earlier Blackberries. It will be a software addition much like is done on Android phones now, however even that won't be available at rollout but "may" be made available later in the Fall. Yup a major disappointment. I have to say I was very enthusiastic about getting the 9900 a few weeks ago, but now with T-Mobile's high end pricing ($349 b/f rebate), the lack of auto focus on the camera, and now the apparent MIA UMA, I may just bite the bullet and keeping using my 9700 or move along to another platform.

Googly!

Wow, that would be a major disappointment. I don't understand why UMA is not touted more, especially for those who may have a bad cell signal where they are most of the time (like me!). Now I'm really on the fence.

I'm thinking then that I may try to keep my Curve 8900 alive until one of the following occurs:

• The 9900 goes down in price and includes UMA
• I find another 'newer' model that has UMA
• I wait for the Blackberry Colt

I know very little about the Colt - I've only heard about it recently, so I'll have to do a little investigating. But if the Colt has WiFi Calling, then I'll make every effort to wait until that one comes out (1st qtr of 2012, last I heard).

Unless, the Colt doesn't have UMA either. Gads.

I think the declining fortunes of UMA are directly related to the ATT purchase of T-Mobile. There has probably been (I admit complete speculation on my part) a decision made to not devote any further time and $$ into making UMA work with new devices since UMA is all but dead once ATT completes it's purchase of T-Mobile. ATT would never in a million years give customers something without gouging them for it. It's just the corporate culture of "A Fee & Fee". It's one of the reasons I'm considering jumping ship to Android. I might stand a chance of rooting the phone and getting an app that will actually let me make calls over the data connection.

Unfortunately, I heard that it isn't UMA capable. I am in the same boat as you, sorta. For some odd reason, I have absolutely no signal whatsoever in my house. As soon as I step outside my door, BAM I have full bars and all the signal that I need. Would you guys know the problem?

I, as well, use UMA to make calls from my house too because of the signal reception. That would be a real disappointment if it does not have UMA. I am with T-Mobile, can you explain to me how does UMA work?

I understand that it is connected to your wireless router. Does it charge the usual minutes that you use or is it considered "unlimited" minutes due to the wifi.
From my understanding, I believe your using the UMA from your wifi to only receive signal but minutes will be deducted as making any call?

This is a sad, sad day for me. If this is indeed true and the new 9900 doesn't have UMA I will no longer continue down the BB path. UMA is essential for me. My work requires me to use my cell and my office is in the basement of a concrete building. UMA has enabled me to make calls for years in my Wi-Fi laden workplace. Verizon is the only available network down here and I dont want to jump ship. Man I am really upset. I will keep my 9700 until I can figure out my next device. *sniffle*

but minutes will be deducted as making any call?

I thought Tmo was now allowing unlimited UMA calls. I could be wrong. Before they used to be deducted from your plan min. but I thought they changed that this year. Anyways, if they are killing UMA they are killing their customer loyalty as well.

Wow, this will really suck and be a serious omission if true. I use my phone for my office phone and UMA gives me acceptable battery life and a stable signal in my house. Without it the phone works hard to maintain that 1-2 bars and my battery goes quite quickly. Not to mention that it's on EDGE then and I can no longer use BBM while on a conference call.

Grrrrr... They better have a good excuse for this, the differences in the kernel are not that major and they've already got years into developing a well working UMA service. wtf

Maybe some of those Rogers users that lucked out and got one today can make a comment on this? I believe Rogers uses UMA on their network.

Originally Posted by BBxpress

Unfortunately, I heard that it isn't UMA capable. I am in the same boat as you, sorta. For some odd reason, I have absolutely no signal whatsoever in my house. As soon as I step outside my door, BAM I have full bars and all the signal that I need. Would you guys know the problem?

I, as well, use UMA to make calls from my house too because of the signal reception. That would be a real disappointment if it does not have UMA. I am with T-Mobile, can you explain to me how does UMA work?

I understand that it is connected to your wireless router. Does it charge the usual minutes that you use or is it considered "unlimited" minutes due to the wifi.
From my understanding, I believe your using the UMA from your wifi to only receive signal but minutes will be deducted as making any call?

Using UMA does use your minutes -- however, T-Mobile offers free wifi calling as a free add-on with their newer plans which does NOT go against your minute quota. You may have to call/chat with them to add it, as I don't believe it shows up on the normal list of services.

I really, really hope the 9900 has UMA. It's a huge feature for me as well.

Can any of the Rogers users that got the phone today chime in here? If you had UMA on your 9700/9780, what have you got with the 9900?

I have uma with T-mobile and have never paid for anything while using it. Uma is far more important to me then wifi hotspot or af etc.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

The top of page 242 here isn't encouraging...
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/smartp...001-7.0-US.pdf

EDIT:
Better yet, compare page 248 from the above document with page 231-232 from the 9780:
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/smartp...001-6.0-US.pdf

No good.....

Well, I've had an epiphany of sorts. I've pretty much decided to skip the Bold 9900 (just like I should've skipped Windows Vista, but that's a story for another day :) ).

I started thinking, what do I really need the Blackberry for? At the time I got my Curve 8900, it was a good deal, it has UMA - it was perfect for me at the time. I've been able to get so much done on a personal level mostly because I'm able to respond to e-mail right away if necessary (this is not a business phone).

E-mail, hm, that's the main reason. Is that all I'm holding on to? I started looking at T-Mobile's web site for their other phones listed there (again, I don't plan on switching carriers, until AT&T does it for me). The Android platform is sporting some really cool phones. I'm all about practicality, which is another reason I like the Blackberry so much. But can I get that practicality with another phone? I think so!

What is it that I want out of a phone?

• Accessibility to my e-mail accounts
• UMA or WiFi calling

After thinking about it, that's mainly it! Everything else is a bonus. After much investigating, I think I'm going with the myTouch 4G Slide. I can get it right now, it has a slew of extra features that I can use if I want to, it is on a popular platform with gobs of apps, excellent browsing capabilities, and on and on. So why am I clinging to the Blackberry platform?

Mainly because I'm comfortable with it. But that's not enough, so I'll take the plunge in the Droid arena for now. I do have a method to my madness, though. I plan to revisit the Blackberry platform when the QNX OS is incorporated into their phones, i.e. the BB Colt. We'll see how that looks, but methinks it will be better than the Bold 9900.

My choice is made a little easier because I do have the Bold 9700 for company use, but it doesn't have UMA, so I've seen it's limitation and I don't like it.

But I haven't gotten the myTouch yet, so RIM, there's still time! Put UMA in the 9900, and I just may change my mind! I'll be headed for the T-Mobile store in a few days, but it looks like the myTouch for now.

^^^Yeah I also like the MT4G Slide, but I really don't like the keyboard. But truly I just cannot understand why no UMA. I wonder if it is a carrier thing.

I was also afraid the battery would be lousy, but after reading the 9900's battery life I guess I either have to suck it up and charge my phone daily or just keep my 9700 until the next slew of smartphones make it to market. :confused:

I do have the Bold 9700 for company use, but it doesn't have UMA

^^^Depends on your carrier. But the 9700 does indeed have UMA.

Is it just me or does the BB 9900 have UMA after all?

check out this review: BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review

Go down to where you see the screenshot for "Blackberry Protect" and look top right... anyone see what I see?

unless this is a ss from the 9780...

Originally Posted by mikeyyy

Is it just me or does the BB 9900 have UMA after all?

check out this review: BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review

Go down to where you see the screenshot for "Blackberry Protect" and look top right... anyone see what I see?

unless this is a ss from the 9780...

Sheesh, are we being punked? I wish RIM (or T-Mobile) would definitively say UMA will be available or not. That would be nice.

Originally Posted by mikeyyy

Is it just me or does the BB 9900 have UMA after all?

check out this review: BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review

Go down to where you see the screenshot for "Blackberry Protect" and look top right... anyone see what I see?

unless this is a ss from the 9780...

Hmm, that's kind of a big wtf. I can't find screenshots that have both UMA and the NFC icon in them, makes me wonder if the screenshots are from a different device as well. Maybe to save time they used the same pictures for apps that they had previously? Also I noticed some of them show it connected to wifi network, but still only showing the 3G in the top right.

Really wish someone would speak up on it, and if it's not included, RIM should let us know if it's on the to-do list or if we need to kiss it goodbye.

Grrr, and that's one thing a BB does better then any of the other handsets out there, UMA.

Originally Posted by mikeyyy

Is it just me or does the BB 9900 have UMA after all?

check out this review: BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review

Go down to where you see the screenshot for "Blackberry Protect" and look top right... anyone see what I see?

unless this is a ss from the 9780...

This may actually be a screen shot from a 9700/9780. If you check the image properties, you will see that the image size is 480x360 pixels, while almost every other screen shot posted is 640x480. I really don't think the 9900 has UMA, which is a huge letdown. I'm just going to hold on to the 9700 and look at other options. It's a shame, because UMA and battery life were the only things keeping me on the BlackBerry platform, and RIM seems to have sacrificed both to compete on specs.

This may actually be a screen shot from a 9700/9780. If you check the image properties, you will see that the image size is 480x360 pixels, while almost every other screen shot posted is 640x480. I really don't think the 9900 has UMA, which is a huge letdown. I'm just going to hold on to the 9700 and look at other options. It's a shame, because UMA and battery life were the only things keeping me on the BlackBerry platform, and RIM seems to have sacrificed both to compete on specs.

I agree. I guess my 9700 just got a **** of a lot more attractive. The 9900's lack of UMA and an auto-focus camera are acting like beer goggles for my 9700. Hello you sexy old phone. Come to Pappa!:eek:

Does the new bold have the UMA chipset? Or is just software related?
I remember the old 9700 did not have it for Rogers at first. We had to enable it in the engineer screen. I remember there was trouble with 3g to UMA handover, i wonder if its the same with H+ (4g/wimax(whatever you call it) to UMA handover.
Any idea's?

Well, here is a small ray of hope. I decided to dig through the radio / kernel files for the 9700 and the 9900 and I did find some references to UMA functionality in the 9900 file.

Code:

---

Lost UMA In OneRadio Mode:

---

However, there are still sections in the 9700's file that are not present in the 9900 currently, for example:

Code:

---

UMA Call

---

Code:

---

psgw.t-mobilesgws.com...punc.t-mobileuncs.com.....6.3|...k..)l.. .......sgw.homezone.cir....hbsc.homezone.cir...segw-r3.homezone.cir....hbsc-r3.homezone.cir....2 ...?...?..segw.uma.rogers.com.hbsc.uma.rogers.com

---

I know it looks like garbage, but those are the UMA servers the phone connects to, and I can't find those strings anywhere in the 9900 file...

The section I came across that has UMA as a reference could just be leftover code that's not used, or it could be the start of UMA functionality in the device. Unless we get a statement from RIM that says they will be incorporating it at a later date, who knows if and when we'll see it.

I just spoke to Rogers regarding the lack of UMA on my 9900. They claimed that it should be working soon but that a GAN-lite patch would be required first and they don't expect the patch for another week or two. They asked me to call back in a week to see if they have it. I'm hopeful.