Say it ain't so!

"It ain't so."

In this report by Wolfgang Gruener, it has been suggested that T-Mobile USA is moving into being a VoIP provider. He describes it like it's like Vonage and in that case, I disagree. 

T-Mobile is likely developing, with its partners D-Link and Linksys and others I am sure, UMA-based solutions that complement and expand the existing features of the T-Mobile@home service. UMA is incompatible with other approaches to VoIP.

Remember that UMA works as GSM over WiFi over IP. So, putting the analog phone inputs into the router means that T-Mobile can support home phones over WiFi over IP. The addition of SIM chip in the router may mean that T-Mobile intends to use this functionality to assure a couple of twists to their service:

• analog voice over GSM – no WiFi use at all, but includes E911 since T-Mobile uses a network-based triangulation technique to know where you are.
• analog voice over GSM over IP with E911
• IP over WiFi using HSPDA or EDGE in those circumstances where there is no Ethernet available.

Sounds like VoIP? It's not. It's behavior, management and control is more like a GSM mobile service, which explains why the special WiFi routers are required in the first place.

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