Service Deployments
The first service launch was BT with BT Fusion in the autumn of 2005. The service is based on pre-3GPP GAN standard technology. Initially, BT Fusion used UMA over Bluetooth with phones from Motorola; since Jan 2007, it has used UMA over 802.11 with phones from Nokia, Motorola and Samsung and is branded as a "Wi-Fi mobile service". BT has since discontinued the service.
On August 28, 2006, TeliaSonera was the first to launch a 802.11 based UMA service called "Home Free". The service started in Denmark and later expanded to Sweden and Norway.
On September 25, 2006 Orange announced its "Unik service", also known as Signal Boost in the UK. The announcement, the largest to date, covers more than 60m of Orange's mobile subscribers in the UK, France, Poland, Spain and the Netherlands.
Cincinnati Bell announced the first UMA deployment in the United States. The service, originally called CB Home Run, allows users to transfer seamlessly from the Cincinnati Bell cellular network to a home wireless network or to Cincinnati Bell's WiFi HotSpots. It has since been rebranded as Fusion WiFi.
This was followed shortly by T-Mobile US on June 27, 2007. T-Mobile's service, originally named "Hotspot Calling", and rebranded to "Wi-Fi Calling" in 2009, initially allowed users to seamlessly transfer from the T-Mobile cellular network to an 802.11x wireless network or T-Mobile HotSpot in the United States. However, the current version of WiFi Calling no longer supports handoff.
In Canada, both Fido and Rogers Wireless launched UMA plans under the names UNO and Rogers Home Calling Zone (later rebranded Talkspot, and subsequently rebranded again as Wi-Fi Calling), respectively, on May 6, 2008.
Industry organization UMA Today tracks all operator activities and handset development.
UMA is not implemented in Asia, Australia, Africa and some European countries.
Read more about this topic: Generic Access Network
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