Posted by The Blogging Desk on Mon, Sep 27, 2010
Engadget:
If you’ve already forgotten what that particular acronym means, we don’t blame you, as Unlicensed Mobile Access hasn’t held the spotlight since the days of HotSpot@Home, but suffice it to say the tech uses a WiFi access point to make free VoIP calls, no cell signal (or minutes) required. It’d be easy to point to this move as a nefarious T-Mobile plot to free up cellular bandwidth a la the femtocell, except it apparently also works the other way, too — the Optimus One will allegedly let you share that HSDPA 7.2 Mbps connection over WiFi with your thirsty laptop.
Smell that? It's the future. But I never would have guessed it would come from T-Mobile. Or even that I could smell it from our IT Support capital of the World, Wayne, PA.
What a huge boon this would be for cellular networks. Imagine if ATT did something like this? (maybe in 10 years) My house is essentially a lead box buried underneath liquid lead. It's not good for calls. Which is great because I hate talking on the phone. I usually have better things to do, like finish this road trip on NHL11. It's hard work, video games. Ya know?
If any carrier has had problems with network congestion, this would potentially take a large load off of their backs. Many people don't buy land lines in their home so that they can utilize their cell phones. Often times, though, they are in a similar situation as I am. If they do get service, it's usually pretty poor. Why not take the time to implement something like this? Maybe just have it turned off by default on phones, and allow the customer to flip it if necessary. No minutes used, no added congestion on their network. Sounds like a win to me.
VoIP is obviously the future for not sure enterprise, but perhaps in the home as well. Even Google has implemented these features into their web-based Gmail. It's a snap to use and is free for the time being.
I ignored 3 calls while writing this blog. Victory!
