Wow - Orange UK!!!

[Yoshi]

My new handset arrived this morning from Orange!

Its the HTC Touch 3g!

Now it has this thing on it called "Unique" which uses something called UMA (dont ask me, i didnt understand the technical stuff when the fella from orange explained it to me!)

In simple terms it uses your wireless internet to route calls (not using VOIP) texts and anything else you use your phone for.

Now this is good for someone like me as i dont get an orange signal in the house - now i have perfect clear signal in the house!

The even better part of this is its free!  Well i say free, it still uses your allowance up as if you were on a mobile signal, but there is no subscription charges or anything like that at all!

So i can say well done orange (its better than that bt fusion thing i had a couple of years ago) lol

[dxmedia]

So  you pay for someone to phone you?

[dxmedia]

No wait, the person phoning you pays orange, then orange charges you (via the contract price and 'inclusive minutes') to accept the call.

So orange charges twice for the same call.


yeah your right. WOW

[Yoshi]

Erm no, as i am not being charged for people ringing me?????

I am saying that when i ring someone it comes off me allowance, when someone rings me its as normal.

[gtomo2]

So its the same as skype thats on most mobiles. except you got charge for making calls.

[Little-Green-Machine]

so when some one calls you it comes through your router and they get charged like a normal call?
and you use the router  to send texts and call people but it costs like normal? have i got this right?
if so thats really cool i hav no orange signal here.

[Yoshi]

Quite simply put its using an alternative signal to GSM.

Its not like skype, it uses a different protocol.  And also to use skype to ring a normal phone number you have to buy skype out mins (or at least you used to, its been a very long time since i was on skype)

"The principle of UMA is simple: It replaces the GSM radio technology on the lower protocol layers of the mobile phone with Wireless LAN. A call is then tunneled via a Wifi Access Point connected to a DSL/cable modem via the Internet and a gateway to the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) of a mobile network operator."

http://mobilesociety.typepad.com/mobile_life/2006/02/wireless_voip_d.html

Its just using a different method to get the information from your handset to the MSC (which is where your call is routed to its destination).

But its most definately free!

so when some one calls you it comes through your router and they get charged like a normal call?
and you use the router  to send texts and call people but it costs like normal? have i got this right?
if so thats really cool i hav no orange signal here.

You need a compatible phone and router though, from what i gather some wireless routers wont like it, but my home hub 2.0 is working fine with it.

The compatible phones are good though, i have the HTC Touch 3G which is a funky little phone!

[Terranosaurus]

Good move by Orange I have to say - you pay them to provide a service and then they use the service you've paid someone else for to provide it - great business model I have to say. Or are you buying your broadband package off orange too? Bear in mind of course it will eat into your allowance and bandwidth, not massively but it will. BT also limit bandwidth at certain times of day and certain sites (Youtube and BBC iPlayer for instance), wouldn't be surprised to find orange mobiles on that list too.

At the end of the day its still VOIP, its just orange VOIP instead of Skype or Windows Live or whatever, nothing particularly clever about it, I had a smart phone about 5 years back that would use WiFi in preference to 3G if it were available, I never ran skype on it but could have. Handy though if you are on orange but have no signal at home - though that does beg the question, Why are you on orange if there is no signal at your house (unless its a work phone I suppose)?

[Yoshi]

Its not actually VOIP in the manner of speaking.

I dont get me internet through orange, i get it through BT and have the unlimited package.

I have been using it all evening and not had a problem with connection or owt - so dont think its limited.