T-Mobile has issued a little update for you 8320-users cruising the Wi-Fi. Nothing huge, just something that aims to clean up call quality and fix a previously reported bug where your UMA (voice-to-Wi-Fi hand-off) settings would get lost when performing a backup. If you’re in that boat, you can grab the update over here, which will bring your OS up to 4.2.2.180.
Tag: UMAPage 4 of 5
BlackBerry 8320 update on T-Mobile
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Despite reports that UMA adoption rates are low, there’s still big bucks to be had, as a recent study by Infonetics Research is claiming that there will be $46 billion in the fixed-mobile convergence market by 2010. Beyond UMA handsets like the BlackBerry 8820, this market includes the network controllers the facilitate the Wi-Fi voice handoff, and residential gateways (like Hotspot@Home). The report is also forecasting a jump from 188,000 FMC subscribers in 2006 to 38.2 million in 2010. We can certainly expect the 8820 to be accounting for a decent chunk of that as it gains steam.
A recent report from Analysys is claiming that European adoption of dual-mode UMA handsets, like the BlackBerry 8820 or the upcoming BlackBerry 8120, is low due to complicated set-up and relative ease of implementing separate land-line and mobile services. UMA handoff, which lets your Wi-Fi pick up voice traffic from your mobile when you’re in range, has been equated to fixed-mobile convergence in general, but this report argues that bundled pricing and shared marketing for mobile and fixed voice services is a more effective way of bringing the two technologies together.
Today’s the day that’s been rumored for T-Mobile’s release of the BlackBerry 8320, which has now been confirmed by a RIM announcement. The online store is stocked, and a few folks have said that they’ve been able to find the gold and titanium-clad BlackBerrys in their local T-Mobile outlet. Boy Genius already has his hands on one (go figure), and has done a side-by-side browser battle with the BlackBerry 8300 to test out EDGE versus Wi-Fi speeds. The results are interesting, to say the least. He makes a solid case that Wi-Fi for data transfer isn’t that big of a deal, so unless you have UMA support, the BlackBerry 8320 won’t rock your socks.
You might not have heard of Devicescape, since they work largely behind the scenes, but apparently they play an integral role in getting Wi-Fi into BlackBerrys. The folks at Ars Technica got a chance to talk with CEO Dave Fraser, who, in the midst of talking about Skype and their own mobile Wi-Fi connectivity solution dubbed Devicescape Connect, had this to say about the future of VoIP in handhelds.
“[There's] nothing we can announce yet, but within a few months new types of devices will be hitting the market like dual-mode handsets, VoIP phones, game systems, media players, GPS systems, digital cameras… we have designs in all of these areas.”
So VoIP phones are going to be as widespread as Wi-Fi dual-mode handsets? At very least, you’ll be able to subscribe to Devicescape’s service to get access to an alternative to UMA handoff. The interview postulates an enterprise situation where their Wi-Fi solution would be especially helpful; if SIP doesn’t end up coming to the BlackBerry 8820, Devicescape Connect could be the second-best way for enterprise to use Wi-Fi for voice.
After listening in on ABI Research’s recent talk on fixed-mobile convergence, analyst Stuart Carlaw has speculated that RIM will be providing SIP support in addition to its already-established UMA for the BlackBerry 8820. There was some concern earlier that the voice hand-off technology that the BlackBerry 8820 was touting (UMA) wouldn’t be compatible with the enterprise standard (SIP). ABI said that ever since acquiring Cingular, AT&T has been drifting towards SIP and similarly, RIM’s acquisition of Ascendent should facilitate PBX integration through SIP.
If AT&T’s release of the BlackBerry 8820 really is just around the corner, we’ll be finding out what it’s packing soon enough. Stuart also set UMA and SIP in a consumer versus enterprise light. If future Wi-Fi enabled BlackBerrys don’t work with both UMA and SIP, at very least we can hope that consumer-oriented products like the BlackBerry 8320 are packing UMA, and business-end products like the 8820 will be kicking SIP (even if it should have been there in the first place).
