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 [email protected] 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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