One of the worst-kept secrets in the wireless industry today is T-Mobile USA Inc.’s much-discussed-by everyone but them, that is-plan to launch services that allow subscribers with dual-mode handsets to move seamlessly between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.
U.S. trials of the technology by T-Mobile have been openly discussed in news articles and press releases by related parties, while the American network operator has kept mum on its commercial intentions.
Despite official silence, however, T-Mobile is widely expected to make an announcement as early as this month on services that rely on unlicensed mobile access, or UMA, technology.
The technology would allow wireless network operators to move quickly on fixed-mobile convergence efforts for homes and offices, offer lower service rates for in-home or in-office use, free up network capacity and keep current customers in their own stable as carrier competition heats up and alternative technologies come to fruition. Strategically, this could position a wireless network operator to steal customers from the wireless competition as well as cannibalize landline users.
For consumers and businesses, roaming off a cellular network onto a home or office Wi-Fi hot spot would offer cheaper overall service and broadband-like speeds for data applications while in the hot spot. Broadband data speeds in the hot spot may well encourage overall data uptake as voice fades, so the logic goes.
For the record, T-Mobile USA offered the boilerplate assurance that it does not comment on rumor or speculation regarding its business plans, nor does it pre-announce products or services prior to availability to the public.
“We believe the future will be about leveraging diverse forms of radio-access technology for our customers and unlicensed mobile access, we think, is one of the technologies that will help us continue to deliver on that promise,” according to the carrier’s public-relations firm.
Meanwhile, in late September, Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) quietly launched UMA-enabled services in Italy by posting its offering on its Web page. Less than a week later, TeliaSonera, a telecom company in Nordic and Baltic countries, announced that it would be the first network operator to offer such a service using a P200 handset by Samsung Electronics Co. Trials by Nokia Corp. in Finland using UMA technology also have been widely publicized.
UMA technology, it would seem, is close to ready for prime time.
The UMA protocol has been pioneered by a variety of players and it includes two parts: a UMA network controller and UMA client software that resides on a dual-mode handset. The self-proclaimed “godfather” of UMA is the privately held, Milpitas, Calif.-based Kineto Wireless, which makes both the network controller and the client software for handsets. Kineto is a five-year- old startup with about 100 employees that has attracted more than $72 million in venture capital while developing the technology and awaiting its day in the sun.
Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. intend to make their own UMA handsets, with a Nokia 6136 and a Motorola A910 both going to Euro network operator Orange. Samsung and LG Electronics will buy their UMA technology from Kineto, according to Steve Shaw, Kineto’s director of marketing.
UMA technology can work with either GSM or CDMA networks, Shaw said, but for now the action and Kineto’s focus is on the GSM side, given that technology’s bigger market.
Specifications for the open standard for UMA (802.11n) were approved by 3GPP, the GSM standards body, in November 2004. Now investors, technology pioneers, handset vendors and network operators are poised to see if UMA turns out to be one of the keys to unlocking the revenues promised by fixed-mobile convergence (FMC).
“Kineto is the only end-to-end supplier,” Shaw said. “We offer the opportunity to hone a UMA system for the operator. Going forward, however, we expect more competition.”
On the network controller side, Alcatel Alsthom and L.M. Ericsson both are competing for business. On the handset side, Shaw said, it’s simply a “make/buy” decision for vendors. In other words, Nokia and Motorola have decided to make UMA-enabled, dual-mode handsets themselves, while Samsung and LG have decided to buy UMA software from Kineto to install on their handsets. Kineto works closely with chip makers Texas Instruments Inc., Philips and Infineon to ensure that its software runs smoothly on the chips installed in mobile phones, Shaw said.
Meanwhile, Shaw acknowledged that other technologies may be potentially disruptive to Kineto’s plans to capture long-awaited profits in UMA.
Femtocells-essentially, tiny cellular networks that run on licensed spectrum in the home or office-conceivably represent such a prospect. ABI Research in September tempered its estimates of 300 million UMA-enabled handsets shipped within five years by noting that femtocells might well scramble that picture toward the end of this decade.
Frequency reuse issues would need to be resolved to make that possible, wrote ABI analyst Philip Solis. The analyst noted, however, that UMA offers the advantage of using the customer’s own wired broadband connection to backhaul data to the core network. And UMA is coming to market now, enabling operators to cement the relationship with their clients while the getting is good.
The advantage of femtocells, according to Shaw, is that subscribers could use existing handsets without the incremental cost of the UMA software client. The disadvantage is that the pertinent radio-frequency spectrum is licensed and currently requires high maintenance to keep various femtocells from interfering with each other.
The answer at Kineto? It’s delving into UMA-enabled femtocells to take advantage of both technologies and have a hand in each before there’s a crash between the two at a technology intersection.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile-which has been at a competitive disadvantage among the Tier One carriers as it lacked spectrum for a 3G network and has just bulked up with $4 billion worth in the AWS auction-is purportedly moving ahead with UMA. But you didn’t hear that from us.
