8320 UMA Starbucks T-mobile transition to At&T question
 

Sorry if this has been posted but I have searched a bit and cannot find a good answer.

I am running into an issue and after 5 hours of "Tech support" with Tmobile and RIM I need the experts in this community to chime in.

I've done a bit of searching and not gotten a definitive answer as of yet.

I have an 8320 curve that has been until fairly recently (6 - 8 weeks) working fine on UMA in Starbucks.
It works fine in H@H via my routers, one T-moble and one not, and also via mutiple work location and open routers.
The 8320 goes directly into UMA mode in about a minute and I'm off to the races without much of a hitch, or any real issue to complain of.

Customer no service demanded I update the firmware to 4.5.0.81 even though I have duplicated the results that no matter which Starbucks in the Westside of Southern California I go to UMA mode is not avaialble for calls.
I then went and set up at Starbucks for another hour diagnosing and being cut off with Tmobile again, yuck.

I turned off the mobile network while at Starbucks and got error W010 and a message to the effect some networks may require a sign on.

I got through to one RIM Technician who stated that he did not know why they had not told me this four hours ago, but the roaming agreement did not cover UMA and any hotspot that had a log in was not supported. He was very clear on this and said that although there was a roaming agreement - the other carrier had not committed to carry UMA traffic and there was no agreement in place. :x

I asked him to verify, he placed me on hold, went to verify , came back and said yes and as we were opening a "case" he cut off :-(

So folks have we lost access to 7,000 locations and T-mobie is playing dumber than usual - or is this localized - or - or - or ???

I appreciate any help


I ran diagnostics in two locations and this is what I got:
==
Wi-Fi
Current Profile: attwifi
SSID: attwifi
AP MAC Address: 00:1E:13:43:97:D0
Security Type: Open
Local IP Address: 192.168.5.230
Signal Level: -68 dBm
Connection Data Rate: 54 Mbps
Status: Network acquired

VPN
Current Profile:
Concentrator Address:
Contact: N/A
Authentication: Error
Secure Device IP:
Status: Error: Link down.

UMA
Connection Pref.: Wi-Fi Preferred
UMA Wi-Fi Available: Successful
Connection: Successful
Error Code:
Status: UMA Connection successful.

BlackBerry Infrastructure
Connecting: Error
Authenticating router: N/A
Authenticating server: N/A
=====
Wi-Fi
Current Profile: attwifi
SSID: attwifi
AP MAC Address: 00:1A:30:66:A1:70
Security Type: Open
Local IP Address: 10.208.19.228
Signal Level: -88 dBm
Connection Data Rate: 54 Mbps
Status: Network acquired

VPN
Current Profile:
Concentrator Address:
Contact: N/A
Authentication: Error
Secure Device IP:
Status: Error: Link down.

UMA
Connection Pref.: Wi-Fi Preferred
UMA Wi-Fi Available: Successful
Connection: Successful
Error Code:
Status: UMA Connection successful.

BlackBerry Infrastructure
Connecting: Trying...
Authenticating router: N/A
Authenticating server: N/A

Yeah, ATT got all the business at Starbucks but I had read that the current contracts were going to be good for another 5 years

Its transitioning for about 1 -2 years from what has been said.

Sounds like a bumpy transition. Us TMo users got the short end of the stick on this one. Glad I don't frequent starbucks.

Yeah, but AT&T has more customers thats why it switched, plus they have a TON more money.

Doesn't help me get UMA at Starbucks!

Well... if you are near a starbucks you probably dont need it anyway even Tmo has coverage in cities :razz:

Very true. I never used it but it was always a good way to troubleshoot UMA problems.

True
 

It's nice to not burn metered minutes, and some folks need those "mobile but noisy" offices. :-)

The roaming agreement for the Starbucks hotspots is 5 years, however its for people paying for Hotspot use.

Unsupported Browser

On the Tmobile website, Starbucks hotspots now show up as "Roaming HotSpot
(Additional charges apply)". Or at least they seem to be. It used to say what they were, but now they don't show a name, just a location. I think it's the Starbucks that are grey.

Thanks for that information, it seems that literally no one at T-mobile knows or understands the score and that they are osciallting between it must work and no it doesn't...

I was in an ATT Starbucks across the street from my car dealership for four hours yesterday waiting on the *!@(*#)( dealer. I probably racked up two hundred minutes of calls via UMA. They were clear as a bell.

I would bet that it is a QOS problem. ATT probably treats TMobile UMAs as a standard VPN connection and doesn't give it any priority. If there is a kid downloading a copy of three DVDs from Kaza at the next table, you are probably competing with him to get your call out. At least that is my guess.

Stu

PS: I know that it says my location is Dubai. This took place in Michigan.