UMA Based Smartphone Prototype from Chi Mei Spotted at the CTIA 2006

[Kris Kumar]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/ctia_2006/?p=4' target='_blank'>http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/ctia_2006/?p=4</a><br /><br /></div><i>"HTC wasn't the only manufacturer showing off new Windows Mobile devices. Chi Mei also had a new Smartphone at the show. The unnamed device was a prototype smartphone with UMA technology for seamless roaming between GSM networks and personal Wi-Fi networks at home. The Chi Mei UMA phone is surprisingly small. It seems smaller than recent HTC smartphones like the SDA and 2125. Its features are pretty standard: 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, memory card slot, etc."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Kris-May06-ChiMei.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />UMA stands for Unlicensed Mobile Access, it enables seamless delivery of mobile voice calls over Wi-Fi networks and it also enables seamless transitions between cellular and Wi-Fi networks. There is considerable speculation that T-Mobile will be launching a UMA enabled phone soon. While I am sure that it will not be this Chi Mei Smartphone, but it would be good to see a Smartphone in the UMA enabled list. ;-) I definitely like UMA based solution over Skype like VoIP applications. What are your thoughts?

[Mike Temporale]

I kind of like the look. I don't feel the desire to run out and get one, but it's nice.

While I like what HTC has done, I'm still interested in seeing more from the competition.

[Kris Kumar]

The joy pad looks interesting. I like the size and the placement of the soft-keys, home, back and the call-hangup buttons.

On the other hand, the screen seems small compared to the HTC Smartphones. Wish Rich Brome (a.k.a. PhoneScoop) had taken some comparative shots. We need more scoop on this one Rich. ;-) :lol:

[Sven Johannsen]

I definitely like UMA based solution over Skype like VoIP applications. What are your thoughts? Interesting that most had thoughts on the device itself. Mine singled out the UMA concept. I need to see that work before I get too excited. If I'm talking to you on my SP over T-Mobile and walk into my house (and happen to have WiFi turned on on my phone and have some battery left) how the heck is it going to transition that call, to a VoIP call on my home network which has Earthlink as a provider, jump out of an Earthlink server and onto a public switched voice network and break into the call you have up.

I'm sure it's been demonstrated, but I'd bet in a controlled environment with local access to all the switching gear, not with real networks.

I can see the feasibility of something like this happening if I have T-Mobile on my cell and walk in to a T-Mobile Hotspot. The same guys control the transition point into the PSTN, but the technology to do that is not, in my mind, trivial.

[Jerry Raia]

Chi Mei? The builder of the incredible MPx220? That Chi Mei? They are joking right? UMA = Unusable Mobile Accident

[Kris Kumar]

Chi Mei? The builder of the incredible MPx220? That Chi Mei? They are joking right? UMA = Unusable Mobile Accident

Oh, Chi Mei is the one behind the MPx220 fiasco, I always gave that credit to Compal. :oops:

[runbuh]

What about the business side? What I would like to see from these phones is this kind of integration with a business telephone system. Make it so that my desk phone # (a wireless Cisco VoIP setup, for example) is the only number that people have to call. When I'm not in the office, my "mobile" phone transitions from my company's WiFi network over to a cellular network. People still call the same number.

If one of these comes out - I will try it. Just maybe not the Chi Mei version (if they are the ones who manufactured the MPX-220). Granted - who is really to blame for the MPX-220? Did Moto design it and Chei Mei manufacture it based on Moto designs? Also - who wrote the code? Moto or Che Mei? My MPX-220 was actually pretty good until it did a tour of duty in our washing machine. A lot of the problems I heard about seemed like they could have been software related...

[Bala Pitchandi]

"UMA stands for Unlimited Mobile Access, it enables seamless delivery of mobile voice calls over Wi-Fi networks and it also enables seamless transitions between cellular and Wi-Fi networks. There is considerable speculation that T-Mobile will be launching a UMA enabled phone soon. While I am sure that it will not be this Chi Mei Smartphone, but it would be good to see a Smartphone in the UMA enabled list. ;-) I definitely like UMA based solution over Skype like VoIP applications. What are your thoughts?

UMA stands for Unlicensed Mobile Access (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlicensed_Mobile_Access), not Unlimited Mobile Access. UMA is a temporary solution to IMS or TISPAN (Look those up, I am lazy to link them :)). UMA basically treats all WiFi users are GSM Mobile users and can only provide ("emulate") GSM services to WiFi users.

[Kris Kumar]

UMA stands for Unlicensed Mobile Access (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlicensed_Mobile_Access), not Unlimited Mobile Access.

Yikes! :oops: :twak: That is a really bad typo. In fact I wanted to have a link to this website, forgot that also. Thanks for correcting.

http://www.umatechnology.org

[Jerry Raia]

I like my definition better anyway Kris. :lol:

[Kris Kumar]

IMS stands for IP Multimedia Subsystem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Multimedia_Subsystem)

TISPAN stand for Telecoms &amp; Internet converged Services &amp; Protocols for Advanced Networks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TISPAN) &lt;phew..that is one long acronym>

Good bed time reading material. :-)

[Mike Temporale]

Good bed time reading material. :-)

You sick puppy. :twak: Good bed time reading - bah! :roll: :wink:

[Jerry Raia]

Kris, we need to talk again. Perhaps over a garbage plate. :)

[Kris Kumar]

Guys, IMS is pretty cool. I like it. Definitely much better than UMA, since it is based on IP/Internet based standards. Just finished reading the whole WiKi article. ;-) Wish the TISPAN also had a similar dumb-user readable article.

Bala, I can understand the reasons for preferring IMS over UMA. I hope some vendor and hopefully Smartphone vendor is working on IMS prototype. The only thing that is bad about IMS is that it requires cellular network upgrade and not sure if the carriers would want to do. Maybe once the 3G tech rolls out, they might be willing. But for now it looks like UMA is here to stay for some time to come, maybe for a long time.

Now it is bed-e-bye time.