I'm guessing that most people will only have wifi turned on when they are actually using it. This is due to the battery drain.
Nah, they'll probably leave it on 24/7... I know I've done this with all my blackberries with no problems... I don't know how else to explain it, the additional drain on the battery is negligible, I really can't tell the difference in battery drain between wifi on and wifi off on my 9000
but even if u leave it on 24/7, it isnt like bluetooth. ITs not a dumby option. U can set our device to prefer wifi. Once ur out of a wifi zone, it shuts down and 3g takes over. Its not like u have to keep managing this connection over and over
You had the 8900 on t-mobile didn't you? UMA was sending all the data over wifi so it wasn't using the radio at all.
Well when I was on wifi it would say UMA where it would normally show edge but WIFI was still on, UMA is a wireless protocol but the WIFI radio is still the thing connecting and doing the work. If I click manage networks or connections would show the phone is linked to my router so obviously it is the gateway for data in or out. HOW UMA WORKS
I have determined that turning WiFi on does not affect battery life on my 8900 at all. That really makes sense because even though the Wifi and the carrier/EDGE radios are both on the device cannot send/receive data/signal using both at the same time, unlike GPS where the satellite radio does one thing and the maps are downloaded using another radio. For voice and data only one is active and they both use the same amount of battery probably. I've tried WiFi off and on at home and office where I have WiFi and it makes no difference at all