bioyuki

Hey all,

I have a Blackberry 8320 with T-Mobile and will be traveling to Thailand, China and Japan in a few weeks. Should have international roaming everywhere but Japan.

Do you guys know if HotSpot@Home/UMA will work in other countries/wherever I have broadband? Every hotel I'm staying at will have WiFi so if UMA works, it'd be a great, cheap solution.

meerkat9090

Short answer: probably, although there have been some reports of individual hotels not working. Possibly the required ports were blocked or hotels had routers that didn't allow Ipsec tunnels.

here's a good forum on Hotspot@Home here.

and a "reports from Asia" thread about using Hotspot @ Home overseas here.

ThatAdamGuy

I hate to say this, but I wouldn't expect UMA to work over most hotel wifi systems . This is because most hotel wifi services I've seen require you to log on with a username and password, and to my knowledge, you can only access either open or WEP (key)-accessible wifi via UMA on TMO, not username/password protected wifi.

However, assuming Starbucks is still offering TMO Hotspots by then, you should be in luck at nearly any Starbucks; TMO's UMA-enabled phones just seem to seamlessly work at Starbucks' (and airport Hotspot) locations.

(oh, and Japan's cellular networks aren't on GSM, I'm pretty sure, so you'll likely need an entirely different cell phone there).

worldwidedreamer

T-mobile prevents you from using HotSpot@Home phones outside of the United States. Unless you have a US-based proxy (and then the quality will probably be too low) you are SOL. I've tried to use HotSpot@Home in Japan, HK, China, etc. with no luck. To me this is the biggest downside to the HotSpot@Home program.

dtsm

I just spent the better part of hour with TMO CS discussing purchase of BB (special promo being offered for Blackberries.) and this topic.

First, the promo information which I got from howardforums.com is still valid:
There's a promotion targeting Blackberry Developers, so I think you need the correct code. Here's what you can get:

BB 8100 (PEARL) $50 = FREE after rebate
BB 8700 $50 = FREE after rebate
BB 8320 (CURVE)$99 = $49 after rebate - need to get $9.99 data plan.
BB 8800 = $99
BB 8820 = $199 - no need to get data plan

You have to call T-Mobile's Business Direct number and mention either the "campaign name'"or the "promo code" below:

Business Direct: 1-866-464-8662 (option 3)
Campaign Name: RIM Blackberry Offer
Promo Code: 7490TMOFAV

Hotspot@home technically offered only in Seattle/Dallas but you can get identical program by purchasing TMO router for $49.99. Router includes a sim card that then is programed for H@H. Actually monthly service is now back down to $9.99

Now the kicker - if you try to user internationally, you will be able to connect using wifi but TMO will check the IP address and if it is not a US IP, you will be charged for roaming and no free UMA calls

ScottC

That really is pathetic. There is no technical reason for them to block voip calls from outside the US, other than protecting their revenue for international roaming.

mbreuer

OP: Answer is that TMO supports it, individual hotspots may/may not. You CAN log in to sites that require log-in on the 8320, there is a button when you connect that brings up the wi-fi browser using the gateway IP address received from the AP.

I have used my curve while traveling internationally (in the UK).

dtsm: Seattle was the trial run - it's now national. Where do you see international roaming for wi-fi based on IP address? Certainly not in my T&C.

worldwidedreamer: I think you're confusing hotspot access with @home. You cannot use US hotspot access to connect to non US hotspot locations. If you pay for local access, then you can log in, and you can use @home. By default, you won't connect.

meerkat9090

Actually, anecdotal evidence from the thread I linked to above suggests that it is possible, although sometimes glitchy:

"Got back from Thailand this week. Worked great for me with the Samsung t409"

"I recently traveled to Japan , China (Shanghai, Guangzhou, HK..) , Bangkok, Singapore, two days ago was in Mexico city.
it works anywhere if you have Wi-Fi internet access ."

"Another update from Seoul. My H@H service was dead for several weeks beginning around Thanksgiving (as posted previously). I had a business trip to Hawaii last week, and when I arrived my phone did not work on GSM nor UMA. After a couple of calls to tech support, we concluded the SIM card was bad. I changed out the SIM card, and suddenly it all started working again.

When I returned to Seoul, the UMA service continues to work reliably."


"I was traveling in China for the last month and half and using 8320 to make phone calls back to US quite frequently without any problem. The nice thing is that in China, you got free wifi access quite a lot."

dtsm

Update and corrections.

Spoke with TMO CS again to check on arrival of my BB and CS told me what I quoted above referred to the new H@H using regular phone and not UMA enabled mobile phone. She said the other CS misspoke and in theory with wifi signal it should work properly anywhere

IFlyMRY

I was an early dopoter of @home. I've used mt 8320, T409 and Katalyst to make uma calls from multiple locations in Europe, Asia and South America. There is no "international roaming" charge.

With the 8320 you can log in on a separate access page w/ wifi, sign in and uma works. With the T409 and Katalyst you cannot do this but you can sign into wep encrypted connections.

As for Japan, just last week I made uma calls from the IFCL in NRT.

When @home first came out there where definately bugs especially logging in. In the lst 4 months I have not had any problems and the bugs seem to be fixed. It is my understanding that a few routes have the specific ports blocked by the admin and TMO can do nothing about it.

Another solution that I think delivers a clearer, more stable connection is www.truphone.com. It uses a different technology, SIP I think, which is like a voip enabled cell phone. There a very few phones that have this ability. You can view the enabled phones on truphones web site. I use the N95 8gb and it is better than my landline.

Dubai Stu

I have nothing but good things to say about Truphone, but its technology is actually easier to block. TMobile's connection looks like a VPN connection. Most public hotspots cannot afford to block that. SIP is often blocked.

Certainly there are countries that block VOIP and it would be easy for them to target TMobile as well. Last I checked, however, this wasn't the case. Trying to use VOIP in a banned country is a cat and mouse game and you can't count on the cat staying put.

iwebslinger

How were you able to do this? I have tried a couple of times without success. Can you give me the steps you used? I am using a 8320 TMO.

IFlyMRY

manage connections>setup wifi network>UNITED4F (or UNITED3F if in RCC below)>save

Wait for uma to connect. If it doesn't log in to uma quickly you can try to "move" the saved UNITED4F connection up in priority by pushing the BB button next to the scrollball and choosiing "move" when your in wi-fi connections. Also try power cycling by removing the battery although I rarely have to do this.


Remember when you use uma calls to the States are free but calls to other destination get billed as if they originated in the States.

thelark

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...3&postcount=36

goaliemn

you can hit a button on the screen that brings up a web browser to log in with. I've used it many places that required login.