UMA question
Nov 19, 2009 | 3:02 pm
#16
Join Date: Jul 2004
Programs: CO Gold; SPG Gold***; AvisFirst;
Posts: 3,970
Big mistake. you should get him the brand new 9700 with 3G. I just got it and it is great. It is only $70 more than the 8520. I was told that if you start a call with UMA and then it moves to Edge the whole call will be free. If you start on Edge and move to UMA you will pay for the whole call.
That's NOT true if international. If you would be incurring international roaming charges, then you will still incur them if you start the call on UMA and roam to EDGE or GSM.
Nov 19, 2009 | 3:23 pm
#17
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 16
My experience with t-mobile UMA
I have Blackberry Curve 8320. In May 2009 I stayed at a hostel in Milan, Italy with free wi-fi. The wifi requires a password but I can't recall what kind of security authentication (WEP, WPA, TKIP, etc). Since I was a hostel guest, I can use the wifi freely.
I walk up close to the wi-fi transmitter, set my Blackberry to "Manage Connections", disable "mobile network", enable "wi-fi", follow the wizard to look for wifi, enter password. Viola! Within 1 minute I have "UMA" status on the right top corner. I called friends and parents in USA and sent couple text messages "Guess... I am in Milan now, bla bla bla...". The minutes and SMS were billed as domestic usage. No international roaming or surprise bill whatever.
I walk up close to the wi-fi transmitter, set my Blackberry to "Manage Connections", disable "mobile network", enable "wi-fi", follow the wizard to look for wifi, enter password. Viola! Within 1 minute I have "UMA" status on the right top corner. I called friends and parents in USA and sent couple text messages "Guess... I am in Milan now, bla bla bla...". The minutes and SMS were billed as domestic usage. No international roaming or surprise bill whatever.
Nov 20, 2009 | 1:27 pm
#19
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Tri-State Area
Posts: 4,728
UMA add-on is dead?
Someone on howardchui.com forum just posted that the H@H add-on for $9.99 is no longer available on the TMO website.
If true, that means UMA feature still works but now it counts against your bucket of minutes.
If true, that means UMA feature still works but now it counts against your bucket of minutes.
Nov 20, 2009 | 1:31 pm
#20
Join Date: Jul 2004
Programs: CO Gold; SPG Gold***; AvisFirst;
Posts: 3,970
If you ARE grandfathered, the older plans seems to be significantly less expensive than the new plans.
Nov 20, 2009 | 2:02 pm
#21
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Alabamastan
Programs: DL-PM
Posts: 114
I used my UMA on my Blackberry all the time while I was in Solvokia and India. You do not need to have H@H to use the UMA feature. H@H just makes UMA calls unlimited. Without it, it will just pull from your minutes like a normal local call (even when you are out of the country).
Nov 20, 2009 | 3:27 pm
#22
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Detroit; Formerly Dubai
Posts: 3,676
I've heard customer service say that if you start the call on UMA and then step out onto the cellular network the entire calls is free even if the network you step out onto is a foreign network. I have a hard time believing that in reality you wouldn't drop the call if you tried this little experiment. TMobile had a horrible problem doing handoffs to its own network and had to do a ton of work to finally get it right. I'm just real skeptical that you could make the handoff work walking out of your hotel room and stepping onto the Vodafone network.