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Voice over Wi-Fi growing, Eliminating wireline phones

Voice over Wi-Fi is growing, as predicted, since (a) Operators are happy to offload voice and especially data and, with Operator permission, the (b)Mobile phone manufacturers are building it into their (smart)phone platforms. This is part of the wider solution that Operators are employing to manage the deluge of data swamping their networks (see other articles for more details on how Operators are offloading mobile data to manage the exponential growth that they are experiencing, to prevent their Mobile Internet business from being broken).

UMA is the buzzword: enables Voice connections (transparent to the User) using available Wi-Fi connections. UMA is a piece of software that is built into the phone. It is a lot easier to use than a separate Voice over IP apps that must be installed and configured by the user, and that requires the user to have a IP data plan.

BlackBerry already has UMA  across their model line, and Android may offer it (there are rumors that this is being tested; see petition requesting it). Apple iPhone has Wi-Fi but does not yet include UMA, but it could easily (perhaps we’ll see it in a future release).

UMA can deliver significant savings of $500/year or more, by eliminating a landline phone and allowing the user to solely use their mobile phone. It’s the equivalent of replacing your landline phone by solely using your cellphone (than can also save you up to $1,000/year, surprisingly), but the Operator typically encourages this and includes it at little/no cost! You get free voice in the Home/Office! One can save a lot on International Roaming and Long Distance charges, too, since UMA calls are routed over Wi-Fi back to the Home network, and appear (and are billed) as local calls–as if you were calling from your home/office. In actual use, we found that “Road warriors” could save up to $1,000/month by using a UMA device (such as a BlackBerry) to make calls over Wi-Fi while traveling.

Read on to see how UMA is one of many solutions towards eliminating wireline, in End Game: Wireline Eliminated.

Wi-Fi Appearing in Smartphones

It’s encouraging that many of the top handsets are starting to include Wi-Fi. 11 of the top 15 smartphones reviewed by PC Magazine include Wi-Fi! And Wi-Fi support is trickling down into mainstream (less expensive) handsets, as the core chipsets incorporate this as a basic feature. Accordingly, the number of Wi-Fi handsets is expected to double every two years (50% growth per year) [ABI Resrarch, 2009], to the point where half of the handsets will include Wi-Fi in 2012. A previous post discussed the current handsets that work with @Home and include Wi-Fi and UMA software, and included forecasts for lots more Wi-Fi handsets on the horizon.

The top, Wi-Fi capable handsets are (in alphabetical order, not by rank):

• BlackBerry Curve 8320/8330 Available from T-Mobile for @Home
• BlackBerry Pearl 8120 Available from T-Mobile for @Home
• Apple iPhone 3G
• HP iPAQ 910 (unlocked)
• HTC Touch Diamond (unlocked)
• Palm Treo Pro (unlocked)
• Palm Treo 800w
• Samsung SCH-i760
• Nokia E71 (unlocked)
• Nokia N78 (unlocked)
• Nokia N95 (unlocked)

But, recall that @Home requires not just Wi-Fi but also UMA software. For details, see the previous post on UMA handsets.

Too bad we can’t just grab our favorite (unlocked, Wi-Fi enabled) handset and use it on @Home. I seriously doubt that there is a way to get a UMA client installed on an unlocked phone of your choice, as a 3rd-party app, since the UMA software is configured to reach inside the carrier’s network. Such an app would typically not be user-configured, nor would the config settings even be visible. But, hey, unlocked phones can be configured for other IP services (MMS, web browsing), so it’s possible.

If anyone knows of a way to get a UMA app installed on an unlocked phone, please let me know!