TI Changes Horses

As reported by Unstrung Wednesday, Telecom Italia (TI) has shelved its UMA-based Unica service offer in favor of a ‘home grown’ SIP-based solution.

The article goes on to say that TI is re-launching Unica using a SIP client available on one phone, the Nokia E65. Ironic since the UMA-based Unica service was thought to have a ‘limited availability of handsets.’

The new service is part of TI’s quad-play push. My Italian is a bit rusty, but after reviewing the web site, I believe that subscribers of the new Unica service must have TI Mobile (TIM) GSM service, as well as TI’s fixed-line VoIP service Alice.

The new Unica service is about putting Alice on the E65 device.

It’s not the same

I believe this is a key element that was overlooked in the article and in TI’s decision. UMA-Unica and SIP-Unica are actually very different services.

The UMA version of Unica was about delivering mobile services over IP and broadband -- make the mobile service work better and cost less when the subscriber is indoors and connected via Wi-Fi. UMA is a mobile centric service for fixed-mobile substitution.

The SIP version of Unica is about putting a fixed-line VoIP service (Alice) on a handset. The subscriber ends up with two services on one phone. One is the traditional GSM service; the second makes the E65 behave like an in-home cordless phone for the Alice service. You won't find this service marketed on the Telecom Italia Mobile site, it's only on adsl.alice.it.

In the end, the SIP-Unica service has no technical barrier to entry. Any user can download any SIP client onto any E65 device. TI has chosen to package this up into a service. This is the same business model as Truephone. From a regulatory perspective, any operator (actually any person) can provide the same service.

It’s clear the UMA and SIP versions are different services and will appeal to subscribers with different needs. The UMA-Unica comes from the mobile division, the SIP-Unica from the fixed division.

The bigger question is: what type of demand is there for a mobile phone with a fixed-line VoIP client? We all remember how successful T-One was.

A final thought

It’s clear UMA technically works and operators are deploying it successfully (Orange, T-Mobile, Telia,…). The problems with the UMA-Unica were not technology based. The issues with Unica were internal. Those watching the mobile market saw countless articles this year about TI’s unfortunate political struggles.

Changing the underlying technologies of the Unica service won’t solve the politics. In fact, putting the fixed division’s service on the mobile division’s device is likely to make things even more contentious.

What do you think?

Informa's very successful 2nd UMA conference

Last week Informa held its second UMA conference in Cannes. Overall it was a very successful event, with 8 presentations from operators (two from Orange). All the key players were there in force, including Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Kineto.

In addition, there were many operators who had come to hear about the market and the successes to date. They weren’t disappointed, Orange, Telia and Telecom Italia all presented on the status of their deployments and feedback on the successes.

While it would not be appropriate for me to recite information verbatim, we did get excellent insight into metric of UMA users. Also, Telia shared a very clever television commercial they are running in Denmark for their HomeFree service. It highlighted their fixed/mobile offer and the key benefits. No wonder there is so much demand.

One very interesting presentation was from NXP on their efforts to increase battery performance for UMA devices. The net result is that NXP now has an extremely competitive platform which, in their words, offers up to 9 hrs talk time and 200 hrs standby-time for UMA-enabled handsets. I believe that meets the GSM bar. Kudos to NXP.

Will Franks with UbiquiSys offered an insightful presentation on femtocell technology and how dual-mode handsets and femtos will likely co-exist in the market.

There were two key themes at the event:

First, the industry absolutely needs more handsets. I believe in the coming months, two things will happen. First, there are a LOT of devices in the pipeline, and they will come to market. This is immediately very good news. Second, I believe the operators are beginning to realize the need to actively pursue the handset eco-system for more models. This means being more public about their services and the successes to date.

Second, several operators presented why they chose to go with UMA and not an alternative solution like VCC/IMS. I think hearing the feedback directly from operators on the evaluation process they went through and why they are skeptical or down-right dismissive of VCC was extremely validating for me. As you recall, this is the year I believe the industry will begin to realize just how limiting VCC truly is (witness DT dropping their pre-VCC “T-One service).

All in all, it was excellent. For those of you who didn’t make it, don’t hesitate to send me a note if you’d like to get more information. Next year’s event promises to be even better.

UMA "in the wild" or at least in Rome

According to blogger Mark, Telecom Italia Mobile is now pushing their UMA service, called Unica, once again.

For a while, it was confined to a handful of stores in Milan, but with this sighting, it looks as if UMA and Unica is expanding across the country.

This fits with another datapoint. TI/TIM executives meet with the financial community on March 9 and presented the outlook for the company. Unica was called out as a key technology for Telecom Italia Mobile going forward.

It looks like things might be back on track in Italy.