While we're all patiently waiting for
UMA to go national (any carrier want to step up to the plate here?), Samsung's taking a decidedly different approach to mobile VoIP with its
Ubicell product unveiled this week. Carriers are apparently keen on embracing it, too, with Sprint planning on offering it later this year at a to-be-determined price. We had a chance to check it out this morning, and it looks decent enough; it's reasonably small and it won't stand out in most decor (especially if you can just set it next to your wireless router). The craziest feature might be the integrated GPS that -- get this --
locks you out if you try to get all clever and take the Ubicell outside of US territory. In other words, Sprint has no interest running a femtocell in, say, Madagascar.
posted Mar 28th 2007 1:43PM
Cool. WTF is it?
Its a device that utilizes your broadband connection to boost the signal strength of CDMA carriers. In a sense what UMA was meant to bring to the customer, better reception in homes or offices that had poor carrier reception.
I am anxiously awaiting the release of these products. I have 2 needs for them.
The first one is my friend lives in a rural area, but he is only 15 minutes from the city. The fastest connection he could get was a satellite, which in some bases was just as bad if not worse than dialup. After about a year of fighting with the phone companies, he had a T-1 Brought to his home which is wonderful except for the high monthly fees. Anyhow, he has no cell service there because of the mountains, so this will fix his problem. It will also be nice when I go to visit as my friends and coworkers complain now that I just drop off the planet.
The second need is going to be a bit tricky if these do have a gps feature built in. I am going to need to find a way to disable it or hack it as I want to take it to Canada. My wife and family live there so we spend a couple months a year up there. As some as you know, Canada roaming fees and long distance on cell phones can be anywhere from $0.40-1.50 a minute for a US cell phone up there. And when you spend 1500-2000 minutes a month on your phone, that can add up fast!
Anyhow, I can’t wait!
-Bobby