[edisoninfo]

Does the Storm2 or any of the upcoming Verizon wi-fi enabled phones have the ability to use the wi-fi for phone calls? I was talking to a friend with the Curve 8900 on US Cellular and he said he dropped his plan down to less than 300 minutes because most of his calls go out the wi-fi. I'm sure there is a term for that feature? Does VZW have it?

[fecurtis]

AFAIK the answer to that is no.

[brian_peterson]

I thought T-Mobile only did that? US Cellular allows BlackBerry calling through WiFi? Really?

[TallyHo]

Believe its UMA and Verizon doesn't offer that. As far as I know, only TMo has that.

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[kimrand]

Does the Storm2 or any of the upcoming Verizon wi-fi enabled phones have the ability to use the wi-fi for phone calls? I was talking to a friend with the Curve 8900 on US Cellular and he said he dropped his plan down to less than 300 minutes because most of his calls go out the wi-fi. I'm sure there is a term for that feature? Does VZW have it?

Maybe there will be a skype client for wifi eventually?

[JRay02]

been covered quite a bit...

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[Pete6]

T-Mobile is the only carrier that has the facility to call via WiFi using UMA (Unlicenced Mobile Access) What is UMA? - Definition.

Recently at&t announced that it was going to allow iPhone users to call via VoIP AT&T Relents, Opens iPhone to Skype, VoIP | Reuters.

This does not neccessarily mean VoIP over WiFi but if they allow it over the dataplan at zero cost for the call then there is no valid-to-me reason why they should not allow the same thing over WiFi.

I see this announcement a fairly major because it makrs the public acceptance by at&t of the fact that modern smartphone (I am hesitant to call the iPhone a smartphone but...) is really just the end point of a digital data-stream. The voice channel will utimately go away and paket switching wil become the norm for voice and data alike.

[teg94]

It would be nice if other carriers embraced UMA like t-mo does. For a small monthly fee you can make your free UMA calls, and it helps take a little stress off their network.
But for the time being don't hold your breath for VZW to embrace UMA

[mpallo]

UMA is awesome...you don't need a UMA/TMO Hotspots plan to use it either. If you make voice calls via wifi, it will just subtract from your minutes.

If I wind up getting an unlocked S2, I will be keeping my 8320 in regular rotation. I recently am doing work travel in rural VA where I am about 8 minutes outside of TMO coverage off the Interstate. All US Cellular country. I connect to the wifi at the hotel, login through their portal and I am making and receiving calls with no issue. It is a lifesaver for the rare times I have come across no coverage or very week coverage inside a building or restaurants etc.

[McCracken]

UMA is awesome...you don't need a UMA/TMO Hotspots plan to use it either. If you make voice calls via wifi, it will just subtract from your minutes.

If I wind up getting an unlocked S2, I will be keeping my 8320 in regular rotation. I recently am doing work travel in rural VA where I am about 8 minutes outside of TMO coverage off the Interstate. All US Cellular country. I connect to the wifi at the hotel, login through their portal and I am making and receiving calls with no issue. It is a lifesaver for the rare times I have come across no coverage or very week coverage inside a building or restaurants etc.

What is the point of using UMA if you are using your voice plan. The whole point is saving money.

[Roscopcoletrain]

What is the point of using UMA if you are using your voice plan. The whole point is saving money.

If you travel and call home, its considered a local call, not long distance, so you can still save

[moosc]

No I just checked the 12 threads on this. And no uma on verizon. Just tmobile.

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[Roscopcoletrain]

Rogers has it with their talkspot

not that it matters lol

[Mark_Venture]

What is the point of using UMA if you are using your voice plan. The whole point is saving money.

It also is giving you FULL COVERAGE via a Wifi connection where T-Mobile doesn't have cellular coverage...

Think of being able to take advantage of ALL your BB's features, including Voice Calling to your BB's phone number, SMS, MMS, emails, web, etc.. where you don't have T-Mobile coverage. You CAN do this with UMA, even if you don' t pay the extra charge for unlimited UMA calling minutes.

Think of traveling to Europe and connecting to a Wifi hotspot, using UMA to make/take calls home without any extra costs compared to when you are at home.

Iphone + WIFI = Data only, like web browsing. But not calls to your cellular number.

Iphone + Skype + Wifi = Voip, but using a completely different phone number, right? i.e. you'd have two numbers cellular and VOIP... which number do you give people? what if they want to text you?

that is where UMA, even without paying the extra for unlimited minutes, comes in handy.

That being said, I do have the HotSpot calling feature added to my T-Mobile plan for my 8900 that i use for work. I use it at home, and don't have to worry about minutes used when working off site.

And I DO wish VZW offered it for my personal line.

[photoeditor]

I think this is a pretty significant disadvantage for Blackberry (other than for TMobile and Rogers customers). Does anyone know what's taking Skype so long with their Blackberry client?

Personally, I'd be happy with a VOIP client that simply worked on WiFi; I don't necessarily need it to work on 3G even though that would be nice. But really, this is the one thing that's making me hesitate from getting a Blackberry rather than WinMo or Android.

[theswami#CB]

What is the point of using UMA if you are using your voice plan. The whole point is saving money.

i would love to be able to use my phone over wifi since the coverage in my home is so spotty.

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[lXtreeml]

what about Vonage app for the blackberry..doesn't it just use your internet connection on the phone for the calls?