Danes Getting Hybrid IP Mobiles

praps writes "UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) technology is here — well, in Denmark — meaning users can access mobile and Internet (IP) telephony on the same phone. The same phone that works outside the home as a normal mobile phone that automatically seeks out a mobile network can also be used as an IP phone, which uses wireless technology to make very low-cost calls."

Re:I'll ask the oblivious question.....

[Red Flayer]

Are our telcos not forward thinking enough?

No, it's because the ARE forward-thinking. Why would they do anything on purpose to cut into their revenue stream? All that can happen is that they lose money, short-term and long-term... the long term is a lot easier to forecast and deal with when you have the force of law guaranteeing that the status quo will be maintained for a very long time to come.

Technology that might not make it to North America

[purpledinoz]

Do you think this will ever make it to North America? All the phone lines and cell phone towers are owned by a very small number of very large corporations. I don't see them allowing us to make phone calls cheaper. Even if we eventually are able to get full internet access via our cell phones, I'm sure they will make sure to block all VOIP technology.

If you look at the current situation, the cell phone companies have already considerably restricted consumer choice with respect to the physical cell phones. Everywhere else in the world, you buy a phone, then choose a provider. Here, the phone is locked to a provider, so you're forced to buy the phone with the provider.

For example, I'm with Virgin Mobile in Canada, which is on a CDMA network. However, there's only 4 phones available with Virgin Mobile, which really blows. I'd really like a samsung flip phone, but I'm stuck with a Nokia (the other choice was Audiovox).

It is in the USA

[abelenky17]

I have such a phone, in a beta-test. Its a cell-phone most of the time, but switches to my home WiFi network when I'm home. Tester-agreement prohibits me from saying much of anything about it. But it exists, its here, I use it, I like it.

Interesting..

[Rob T Firefly]

..as neat as the idea is, though, and ignoring for the moment how quickly the US telcos would put the arm on their purchased elected officials should any glimmer of this arrive here, I wonder about the privacy implications. Wifi network traffic is vulnerable to interception, as well as it being the responsibility of the provider (the airport, coffee shop, or whatever) to filter and moderate what's being done on their bandwidth and keep their asses covered in case someone decides to do something illegal and/or stupid from their public network. How secure could using an IP phone via a public hotspot be? And how quickly until the TLAs demand logs and tapping rights?

Re:Good thing!

[Anonymous Coward]

Although maybe the cell companies will see this and sabotage the IPv6 process.

Why would they need to? Its doing poorly enough as is.

I work for a national telecom in an European country. You can have a guess which one, there aren't too many. Anyway, last autumn (2005) we got our first customer requests from businesses (corporations) for native IPv6 support and throughout 2006 there has been dozens of others who are wanting it - both from small to medium sector and from large multinationals. Granted, 9 out of 10 are only asking about it because all the consultants are now selling it as the latest buzzword because MPLS has already been sold to everybody, but others actually need it.

Either they are software developers and need to test their IPv6 support OR (and this is a growing number) they are companies doing business in China (or in Asia in general), where IPv4 addresses are a prenium.

So yes, we've got several customers who would be willing to pay for IPv6 support - and we're starting to offer it soon, due to DEMAND. Consumers don't care about IPv6 all that much yet, but consumer access is a loss leader anyway :)

Anyway, China's economic growth is a major driver for IPv6.

Re:Technology that might not make it to North Amer

[terrymr]

Bet they won't do it. I can't even get qwest (a sprint reseller) to activate a sprint labelled phone. Their computer systems knows which ESNs were sold to which telco and won't activate one that came from another (even if its really the same) network.

Re:America's capitalism is a hindrance to progress

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

Meanwhile, T-Mobile is deploying UMA in the US this fall. And most Americans don't even know what a SIM is (considering that 2/3 of our phones use CDMA, that's not a surprise).

We have a choice of standards hare in the US, and people are choosing CDMA over GSM.

Not sabotage

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Cell companies will likely not directly sabotage this, but they won't fund it either.

Many/most premium phones are subsidised by the cell companies to customers on plans. Give 'm an email phone and they'll send emails, give 'em a camera and they'll send photos.

There is no incentive to include Wifi to bypass the carrier.