Wi-Fi Battery Life: UMA Wins Again

Last month PC Magazine reviewed the RIM Blackberry 8820. The review was quite positive, but one thing which really jumped out at me was this paragraph (second to last in the article):

One area where the 8820 really excels is in endurance; it beats the Curve 8320, although the 8320's performance isn't shabby. On a cellular talk time rundown test, the 8820 lasted 11 hours and 29 minutes with the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios turned off. Over UMA and Wi-Fi, the phone ran for almost 14 hours on the same test. If you're tired of your cell phone's short battery life, this device should be on your short list.

Or as they state in the article:

• Continuous talk time (cellular): 11 hours 29 minutes
• Continuous talk time (Wi-Fi): 13 hours 55 minutes

An all too common complain about dual mode phones is that Wi-Fi = poor battery life. Yet in PC Magazine’s own test, talking over Wi-Fi/UMA resulted in a 20% improvement in talk time/performance.

The evidence continues to mount that those issues are a thing of the past. Companies that are serious about Wi-Fi in devices are optimizing the performance to meet and many times exceed the performance of GSM only.

T-Mo gets the 8820... Finally

The Blackberry 8820, announced about 6 mos ago for AT&T, has finally been released for T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service. All we can say is: FINALLY!

And in the category of 'what have you done for me lately', we ask "When do we get the UMA-enabled Pearl?"

So, how cool is it?

Now that the RIM 8320 is available from T-Mobile (and easier for us in California to get than Orange’s 8820), many people ask “How cool is it?”

It’s true that several people in the office have 8320 with UMA and the feedback has been very positive. But a review on Mobile Tech Review has captured our sentiments and more:

Now T-Mobile goes one better with the Curve 8320 which adds not only WiFi but UMA for phone calling over WiFi networks. That's what we call a killer application in tech lingo: something new, cool and downright useful that might just start a new technology trend.

We agree, RIM and T-Mobile definitely have a winning combination.

Orange goes FREE

One of the anticipated dual-mode handset commercial launches is Orange in the UK. They have trialed the service for some time now. Things looked quite promising when two week ago Blackberry announced the first operator for the UMA-enabled 8820 was to be Orange UK.

But after checking the web site last week, it looks like Orange has some more tricks up its sleeve.

When subscribers sign up for the ‘Unique’ offer, they receive ‘unlimited’ calling to Orange UK mobiles as well as fixed lines in the UK. In addition, they receive ‘unlimited’ calling to fixed lines in 25 countries in Europe plus the US.

The best part is, this is all FREE with any service plan above £30.

Simply ‘purchase’ a Unique enabled phone (which is also FREE with an 18 mos service commitment), and Orange UK subscribers automatically get calls the Orange UK mobiles, UK fixed lines, and calls to fixed lines in 25 other countries for FREE.

How can that be?

Certainly it’s no secret that the UK has an incredible competitive mobile market. Churn is a costly issue. In all fairness, in the Orange UK T&Cs, ‘unlimited’ actually means ‘fair use’ which is defined as 1,000/month of UK calling and 1,000/month of international calling. Still, that’s quite a bit of calling for no charge.

One can image that the Orange team struggled with how to inspire the UK consumer with something new and Unique? It’s a crowded market, how does one win new subscribers and hold on to existing customers? FREE is a word that gets people’s attention.

At the end of the day, Orange is really looking to lock up subscribers between their mobile and broadband service. But offering these types of incentives, Orange is looking to convert (or sign up new) broadband subscribers.

The rumor is that Orange will start a marketing push after the summer.

Orange pulls the UMA RIM?

From the 'Mashup of Mayhem' blog in the UK:

Orange have announced that they will be launching the BlackBerry 8820 will be at the end of July which will replace the BlackBerry 8800 in Orange’s portfolio.

The 8820 is a revamped 8800 that offers all the functionality of the 8800 and combines it with UMA (The ability to use WiFi VoIP and Cellular in the same device). The 8820 therefor supports Orange’s Unique offering where home workers can roam onto Orange’s Unique VoIP service via the Internet through their Orange Broadband connection when in their home location.

Email on the go and UMA is a great feature, HP have combined the options in the iPAQ 514 Voice Communicator (still waiting HP!!) on the Windows Mobile 6 Platform so it’s good to see RIM following suite for those Blackberry users out there.

I'm not sure where Orange UK announced this, but if it's on a blog, it must be true. A quick check of the Orange UK/Unique site shows the Blackberry is not listed as a Unique phone yet, but perhaps it's on it's way.

And now that you mention it, where is that HP device? It's shaping up to be a good summer for UMA-enabled phones.

RIM’s new Wi-Fi Blackberry

doesn’t support UMA yet...

In a story from Reuters, RIM announced the new 8820, its new Wi-Fi enabled Blackberry, will be available initially to AT&T subscribers 'later this summer'.

It’s too much to ask for that the device would come out for T-Mobile/HotSpot@Home first. But now that I think about it, it is ‘too much to ask’. AT&T probably doesn’t have much in the way of Wi-Fi requirements, whereas T-Mobile does.

After studying what it takes to deliver services over Wi-Fi, T-Mobile likely has a pretty extensive set of requirements for the device to ensure seamless mobility, optimal performance and stellar battery life. One example, T-Mobile uses APSD (auto-power save delivery, part of 802.11e) technology between the access point and device to extend battery life.

Because AT&T doesn’t use Wi-Fi for mobile service delivery (ie no UMA), they are likely to be happy with any old Wi-Fi implementation. T-Mobile knows what it takes to deliver a Wi-Fi experience consumers want.

While I’m disappointed that the 8820 is going AT&T first, it completely makes sense. RIM needs to do it right for T-Mobile.

PS - don't worry, we know the UMA version is coming...