[nebular]

Got an 8520 Curve. Only agreed to contract because the UMA would solve the signal issues I have here. Had the phone over a week and when UMA has worked, its been great but half the time (when set to WI-Fi only/ WI-Fi preferred) it doesn't connect, even though the WI-Fi if working fine.

Initially Orange tech told me to do the usual: turn off, take battery out, switch modem off and on, and sometimes that has worked but the problem will always re-occur. When I spoke to someone higher up the technical help chain, they said that Orange don't at the moment have enough 'licences' for UMA to meet demand, which is why it sometimes works and other times doesn't. I wasn't aware that it worked that way, but I was assured that they were aware of the problem and working to address the issue, but no timeframe given.

Does this make sense to anyone, and/or have you had the same experience?

[Quiddelbach]

Almost identical to my problems, a couple of days ago my employer issued me with a Bold 9700, Orange network is non existent at home and therefore the UMA facility is essential.

My ISP is BT and I have two broadband lines into my home, one with a new Homehub router and one with a Netgear DG834.

I too have been through all the usual: turn off, take battery out, switch modem off and on, WI-Fi only/ WI-Fi preferred, Wireless G only, etc.

The hand set will sometimes get a UMA connection, seems to be completely random though and can take hours to establish this connection, the results with Netgear and BT Homehub routers are the same.
A senior techie guy at Orange, recommended Port Forwarding or purchasing a Linksys router which he preferred and/or the following:-

If UMA is not being used on an Orange Broadband/Livebox Configuration, then the following settings may help.



Firewall port numbers and URL

xxx8226; UMA uses standard IPSec ports 500 & 4500 for IKE

xxx8226; Ports 50 and 51 are used for ESP and AH

xxx8226; unc.singlephone.orange.co.uk (advised) or 193.35.136.240 /28

I certainly wouldn't have a clue what the above port malarkey is all about.

This is driving me crazy.

[hulkyboy]

I've got the exact same issue. I now doubt it's anything to do with router settings, as it's worked perfectly in the past. Hasn't connected for the last few days though, so some sort of UMA status page provided by Orange would be nice. Wasn't aware of the licences thing, but it would certainly explain why it sometimes connects overnight. You'd think this technology would be mature by now...

[jpd1977uk]

I cant make calls via UMA as well... Im on Orange PAYG with BIS. I just get 3 tones and a msg saying call failed. I have never been able to make a call this way, i tried at my house via a netgear router and at my inlaws using a bt home hub...

[Neiltoo]

Found this thread while trying to learn about UMA by searching on line.
I have a 8900 on Orange.
There was no sign of UMA appearing on my phone until I bought a new battery, it was completely dead when I purchased it so charging it in my phone resulted in about 4 fairly quick battery pulls ( i needed the phone unexpectedly )
After the battery pulls UMA appeared on the phone ...... this may have been just co-incidence.

I have a Belkin router on BT broadband both at home and at work.

For one week I was connected via UMA at work with no problems then as of today no sign of it.

At home occasionally I get connected via UMA but it is very intermittant. A pain as that is where I need it, GPRS reception is patchy to say the least.

This seems to suggest to me that this has nothing to do with router settings or phone settings but is down to Orange as all my settings are constant but UMA comes and goes!

[vincent_van_go]

Hi,
I can report an identical problem on my Orange branded Bold 9700. Very intermittent UMA connection via BT Home hub (older white one). When connected works well - but this is rare. I live in poor GSM/3G coastal region and am able to register with French and Belgium networks if allowed to roam. I therefore have the mobile network set to 'Manual' on Orange UK and have the 'Connection Preference' set to 'Wi-Fi preferred'. I also read elsewhere that having Bluetooth switched-off fixes the problem. This is not the case for me - makes no difference on or off. Also tried a battery-pull - no change. Reset BT Home Hub (held back button >20secs) and updated the firmware - again no change.

Eventually I contacted Orange CS (customer support) on 14th June 2010. Was eventually put through to 2nd level support to a very competent guy (Gareth) who provided me with his number, took a detailed description of my symptoms and gave a promise to call me back. He did so and explained the following:

Orange CS have three layers of technical support:
Level #1 These are the people who fend off the most basic of questions - "how do I switch on my phone, if I have orange hair do I get a discount...."
Level #2 These people are able to talk a good degree of tech, but are more interested in gathering detail to pass onto Level 3.
Level #3 These people apparently rarely 'speak' with Jo Public. They take feeds from Level 2 and work internally and directly with RIM (where appropriate) to solve deeply technical problems which one assumes means software bugs which RIM add to their 'fielded QA' list.

In any case, Gareth from Orange said that Orange were aware of this exact UMA problem and that we 9700 users should either expect a phone OS update or see the problem disappear. He confirmed that the BT Home Hub was not to blame. He said that any ISP's connection should enable UMA if working correctly and there are no specific issues requiring you to have Orange broadband. He led me here:

On your BB, if you simultaneously hit Alt and Left-Shift keys, then hit 'H' this will bring up a 'Help Me!' screen.

I am apparently running the latest version on my Bold 9700:

Vendor ID: 142
Platform: 5.1.0.146
App Version: 5.0.0.586 (994)


I called Orange support again today. Gareth is off but his colleague read through internal notes on this subject. Many, many Orange customers are reporting this problem. The notes before her revealed that the issue is perhaps not RIM (i.e. device dependant) but is looking more likely to be Orange's UMA networking failing. Gareth was given an action to call me back towards the end of this week with a status update as she is not in Level 2.

So I guess its now time to wait or return the product. Hope this helps.
Nick

P.S. Just a quick note that UMA has been running perfectly all day today - odd?!
P.P.S. Orange support can be contacted on 07973 100 150

[Peter O'Sullivan]

Just to say that my experience is identical - new Orange 9700 with wifi via BT (ISP) and BT HomeHub. UMA did not work when I first set up... then started to work (I had done nothing) and has now stopped.
Spoke with a knowledgeable Orange tech support person (Dean) who said it was a known problem on which Orange is working.

[vincent_van_go]

Spoke with Three different people in Orange last Friday 2nd July trying initially to get a status update. Not much joy, coupled with much frustration having to re-re-re explain the symptoms, despite the records of prior calls infront of them. In any case they moved my mobile number/IMIE's HLR (Home Location Register). Check out Wikipedia for explanation. Not sure entirely what this means, although good old Gareth who eventuality called me back said that this has fixed a number of UMA cases.
Trouble is, because its linked to my SIM, I now have no GSM/2G/3G connection (BB reports a "SIM not provisioned:2" Error) when I leave the house nor UMA connectivity ay home. i.e. no mobile phone. I was told by Gareth that it takes up to 48hrs to propagate.

The phone came back to life 24 hrs later (Saturday afternoon 3rd July) and has established a solid connection to UMA ever since. Seems the HLR re-assignment worked for me! Thanks to Orange support!