Welcome to the inaugural column of “UMA: Mobile Convergence and Beyond.” It’s a sign of the times that Internet Telephony (News - Alert) and TMCnet.com, typically focused on the disruptive aspects of IP in the telephony market, is supporting a column on UMA, a technology almost exclusively for mobile service providers.

 

UMA technology, which combines IP networks and mobile services, is at the center of the disruption caused by IP. Fundamentally, UMA makes a subscriber’s mobile phone work better and cost less by leveraging IP and the Internet.

 

The ‘traditional’ mobile access network is a private, closed system originally designed to facilitate a single service, circuit voice. Yet as it has done in so many other markets, the Internet is quickly encroaching, tempting users with new services like VoIP, social networking, and instant messaging.

 

UMA technology was developed specifically to enable mobile operators to leverage the cost and performance advantages of IP and broadband while delivering quality mobile voice and data services. The challenge for the mobile operator is to embrace new network and service dynamics without compromising service quality and innovation.

 

During the life of this column, we’ll explore how mobile operators are using UMA technology to harness the power of IP. Whether it be through dual-mode cellular/WiFi services, next-generation femtocell applications, fixed-line VoIP or even soft mobile clients for laptops, UMA is central to extending mobile services over the public Internet.

 

Yet there’s a broader challenge for mobile service providers, one that we refer to as the ‘battle for the building.’ The residential market is where incumbent telcos, cable companies, mobile operators and a slew of new ‘portal’ providers (Google, Vonage (News - Alert), YouTube, MySpace…) are fighting to ‘own the home.’ How can mobile operators overcome the competition to win the minds and wallets of consumers when they’re in their home or office?

 

The mobile operators’ weapon in this battle is the Home Zone 2.0 (HZ2.0). A HZ2.0 is made up of two specific technologies. First is a low power, local radio (WiFi (News - Alert) or femtocell). This local radio creates the service zone. When the handset is attached to the local radio, the mobile network is aware and can differentiated services and pricing based on the specific zone. The local radio offers other benefits, specifically offloading the macro radio network as well as improving mobile coverage when indoors.

 

The second technology of a HZ2.0 service is the subscriber’s own broadband connection. In this case, mobile voice and data traffic is sent to the mobile network via broadband/IP rather than the more expensive outdoor macro network. Not only does this improve the economics of offering discounted HZ2.0 services, it provides a high-speed, low-latency IP connection for media rich mobile data applications. Thus mobile operators with HZ 2.0 services can now differentiate services and pricing based on location.

 

T-Mobile’s (News - Alert) HZ2.0 service, HotSpot @Home, lets consumers use WiFi to improve the performance and coverage of their mobile services indoors. Or, for an additional $10 a month, consumers can receive unlimited flat-rate calling in North America. These are just two examples of how HZ2.0 can make the mobile phone work better and cost less — delivering on the promise of UMA technology.

 

Beyond mobile convergence and HZ2.0 is the all-encompassing vision of the ‘connected home.’ In the connected home, devices connect to and interact with little or no user interference; consumers can print photos from their camera phones, stream videos from a media center to the TV, play Internet radio through a home speaker system, and more.

 

The goal for the mobile provider is to make the phone the central command device for the connected home. Consumers will turn to their mobile phone not only for voice, instant messaging, social networking and basic Web browsing but also for remote control of the TV and media center. To that end, we’ll examine in this column how operators can use UMA technology to help make the connected-home vision a reality.

 

This column is developed in conjunction with the UMA industry forum UMA Today (www.UMAToday.com). Its Web site provides information on operators delivering services, on devices (phones, femtocells, terminal adaptors) that support UMA technology, and on the latest news and information about the UMA market. The forum also produces a quarterly magazine and hosts periodic informational webinars.

 

If you have comments, questions or concerns about UMA: Mobile Convergence and Beyond, please don’t hesitate to send a note to me at sshaw@kineto.com or visit my blog at umatoday.blogspot.com. An interactive dialog is always more interesting. Thanks, and stay tuned for more.

 
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