BlackBerry Forums Support Community

cblackberrynyc · 10-28-2007, 01:45 PM

Yet another reason why I continue to call for a few well placed RIM corp stores. UMA and WiFi Blackberry's are the cutting edge.

seanwilliams · 10-28-2007, 02:49 PM

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8320/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

I'm a newbie, what exactly does UMA mean?

John Clark · 10-28-2007, 03:51 PM

UMA=Unlicensed Mobile Access. When it says UMA you can do everything over the wifi (including phone calls/sms.)

I was at a hotel last night where there was almost no cell coverage in my room. 1 bar at best and most of the time it was "searching for network." I plugged in my travel router to the hotel's wired internet in the room and had my own wifi signal in my room and UMA worked excellent!

http://www.blackberryforums.com/wifi...hlight=wtr54gs

USNAVY · 10-28-2007, 04:26 PM

Wirelessly posted (Opera/8.01 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/3.1.9080/1716; en; U; ssr))

UMA rocks? I wouldn't know, I've never gotten it to work. Even on the rare occasion when my phone is in a UMA status, if I make a call I get the dreaded 3 escalating tones. This is all at home on my dsl modem/router, I've never tried to connect anywhere else.

John Clark · 10-28-2007, 04:38 PM

You likely have something not setup correctly on your router. It works well at most places I've connected with open wifi systems. Occasionally, I run into trouble with free wifi's that need authentication in a browser window but most of the time it works great.

onyx00 · 10-28-2007, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Clark

You likely have something not setup correctly on your router. It works well at most places I've connected with open wifi systems. Occasionally, I run into trouble with free wifi's that need authentication in a browser window but most of the time it works great.

UMA sucked for me to, and I tried all types of configurations. I'm pretty confident in my technical abilities and can say quite surely that I think UMA just doesn't work well for everyone.

My solution? I just signed up on ATT this weekend, and am waiting for the SIM card. When I travel out of the country, if I don't want ot pay the roaming fees I can easily use Skype, and honestly it is a heck of a lot easier to get working than UMA seems to be...

flash24 · 10-28-2007, 10:12 PM

Yes, indeed!

Helmdawg · 10-28-2007, 10:26 PM

I agree. UMA has been great for me as well. I think those who are having issues may be due to a set-up problem or the internet provider.

John Clark · 10-28-2007, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onyx00

UMA sucked for me to, and I tried all types of configurations. I'm pretty confident in my technical abilities and can say quite surely that I think UMA just doesn't work well for everyone.

My solution? I just signed up on ATT this weekend, and am waiting for the SIM card. When I travel out of the country, if I don't want ot pay the roaming fees I can easily use Skype, and honestly it is a heck of a lot easier to get working than UMA seems to be...

Too bad. It's a great feature and works well. It does take the correct setup, though. Good luck with Skype. You are at the mercy of your router and ISP (as stated above.)

spblat · 10-29-2007, 03:09 AM

I fought and fought with UMA, but I'm glad I did. I think I've got it working pretty reliably, and it pleases me greatly to have closed my vonage account. Now I have one work number, and if I'm home or at a reliable hotspot I can be on the phone all day at no extra charge. And when I'm on a call, all my data services still work...can't do that without UMA.

John's travel router is an awesome idea. May have to try that out, I'm in hotels rather a lot.

pinhead · 10-29-2007, 06:05 AM

I LOVE the UMA/HS@Home that T-Mobile provides. It really works quite well and it certainly makes it hard to go over the allotted minutes for whatever plan and knowing that I can have service pretty much anywhere that has wifi, which is pretty much everywhere in the city, is a huge plus.

I have been with Verizon and AT&T in recent years and both have given me some spotty service in areas of Chicago and Atlanta. T-Mobile is MUCH better in Chicago than I experienced with either and is certainly as good, if not better, in Atlanta. However, there are always a few spots that nobody seems to cover...but T-Mobile gives us a way to get around that. I love it.

Using my E61i I was introduced to VOIP, and found that there was little impact on battery life and the phone sounded wonderful using it, plus it was/is free. But calls do not, of course, transfer seamlessly over to the mobile network the way they do with UMA and it requires a different phone number for VOIP than of the mobile line. But, overall it is still a little more advanced (overall) than the Curve's setup...just without the UMA. The Curve's setup is so much simpler that it is hard to fault. I love it when things just work right out of the box and this phone does it.

The Curve certainly makes for a better mobile phone. The E61i now seems like a better office phone/mobile phone hybrid though.

The OP is right...UMA ROCKS!

bdraco · 10-29-2007, 06:58 AM

I couldn't agree more. However you might want to get a better ap then tmobile provides as its not so great unless you have < 1000sqft.

I managed to get it working perfectly everywhere @home using:

Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 Wireless-G MIMO Performance Router and Access Point
with DD-WRT (dd-wrt.com) [This one has the best out of box performance according to dd-wrt's wiki) -- Make sure you turn WMM on after flashing with dd-wrt. (got mine from amazon.com good luck finding them though as they seem to be sold out everywhere but amazon)
and
D-Link 2.4GHz Omni-Directional 7dBi Indoor Antenna ( ANT24-0700 )
(This was the best one after testing about 7-8 of them) (got mine from tigerdirect.com, but it looks like newegg.com & amazon.com have a better deal now)

Net result is -57db one floor away. Quite a change from the linksys which was -86db in the same spot. YMMV

bdraco · 10-29-2007, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinhead

The Curve certainly makes for a better mobile phone. The E61i now seems like a better office phone/mobile phone hybrid though.

The OP is right...UMA ROCKS!

I miss the e61i. I just wish nokia could get it together, but in a better processor and deliver a symbian 9.5 platform w/UMA on it. I ended back up on a blackberry because blackberry connect + e61i worked great, but opening an email took way too long. I can read twice as many messages on the 8320 before I can even open one on the e61i.

USNAVY · 10-29-2007, 04:48 PM

I have no doubt that my router is probably the cause of my wifi/uma issues. Does TMO still have the 50 dollar mail in rebate on the router? I may just try that and see if it fixes my problems, I mostly have issues keeping connected and once I drop the connection it takes a long time to come back. I think my router has horrible range too...

USNAVY · 10-29-2007, 04:50 PM

Do I have to have the hotspot@home to access wifi hotspots like that? I have a starbucks in the shopping center next to my place, I went over there and my phone never connected? I even scanned for networks and didn't see anything in relation to Starbucks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgtcasey

As I was driving back to work from lunch I stopped at a red light and there was a Starbuck's about 75 feet away. I decided to take a look at my 8320 and sure enough it said T-Mobile - HotSpot with uppercase UMA. I even received an email while sitting there. As I drove away it flipped back to EDGE with no issues.

Dave

sgtcasey · 10-29-2007, 05:14 PM

Helmdawg · 10-29-2007, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by USNAVY

I have no doubt that my router is probably the cause of my wifi/uma issues. Does TMO still have the 50 dollar mail in rebate on the router? I may just try that and see if it fixes my problems, I mostly have issues keeping connected and once I drop the connection it takes a long time to come back. I think my router has horrible range too...

The rebate is for the purchase of the router between 6/27/07 and 9/30/07 which needs to be post marked by 10/31. That's not saying you cannot call CR and complain that you are having issues. I would highly recommed getting the T-mobile router. I am confident it will resolve some if not all of your issues. That is of course, its set-up properly and your ISP is working like it should. Good luck!!

harveyjc_2001 · 10-30-2007, 09:05 AM

I got UMA "in the wild" for the first time the other day. I was outside a Borders, and the phone just connected to a HotSpot without having to do anything. Handoff was seamless back to EDGE.

flash24 · 10-30-2007, 02:26 PM

UMA is the second best invention ever (TV was the first one of course)