Latest Articles on VoIP And Phone Systems From Birchills Telecom - The Blog

Orange UMA vs Vodafone Sure Signal vs Birchills Telecom Connect

Tweet  

  

  

 delicious  

  

Orange are now advertising their UMA service for business phone systems widely. The UMA initials stand for unlicenced mobile access

If you manage to log on to the Orange web site they helpfully tell you that -

What’s UMA and how can it help?

One in five UK mobile phone users has a problem with their signal at home. That’s why we’ve added UMA technology to our network. All you need is wireless broadband from any provider and one of our UMA-enabled phones.

How does UMA work?

The technology senses when you’re at home and connects to our network through your home Wifi, giving you the freedom to use your mobile to make calls, send messages or use data services as normal.

How do you set it up?

There’s a one-off ‘pairing’ of your UMA-enabled handset and home Wifi. After that, your handset automatically switches from the regular Orange network to your home Wifi network.

Does it cost anything extra?

You don’t need an additional bundle or special plan to take advantage of UMA. Your calls, messages and internet browsing come from your inclusive bundles and are charged at your standard rate, or deducted from your pay as you go balance.”

So that’s what Orange think  - a glance at the Blackberry forums on the web brings up comments like

“I use  VoIP a lot and hardly ever get cut off or suffer poor quality. But UMA is basically VoIP, and it's unusable. Does anyone know when Orange will be updating their service to actually work? “

Orange helpfully reinforce the point in their terms and conditions which read

"Boost mobile signal at home with UMA technology" is subject to the limitations of your Wi-Fi network. Performance may be affected by the construction of the building it is used in, local interference from other radio products, the number of devices connected to the network and the data activity on the network.

"Boost mobile signal at home with UMA technology" is further subject to the limitations of your broadband connection. Performance may be affected by your distance from the telephone exchange, the number of devices connected, and the quantity of data being transferred across the connection

Birchills Telecom has tried to implement similar business phone system solutions using WiFi with smart mobile phones using their networking capability. If you search the web you will find plenty of programs which claim to do just this, Fring being the most famous. We tried the solution and concluded that the reliance on a rock steady WiFi signal made it too unreliable to use and certainly we will not be offering this solution to our customers.

UMA stands comparison with Vodafones recently rehyped Sure Signal service which uses a femtocell to connect the mobile to broadband. This is a more elegant and well engineered solution. Try as I might I cannot find any criticism of this service on functionality grounds but there is a lot on economic grounds. People ask why they should pay for a functionality that they should have any way.

So the comparison is between the Vodafone solution that has a cost but works elegantly with all mobile phones and the Orange UMA which is free but requires a particular model of phone and a rock steady WiFi.

There is a third solution which is Birchills Telecom Connect using IP DECT phones. This allows you to wander around your workspace carrying your phone using a land line number and making crystal clear calls with all of the functionality of a Pbx including call recording, and IVR. If you implement the follow me functionality then when you are out and about you can still receive your landline calls and make mobile calls. The cost of calls when you are in the office is massively reduced because you are using Birchills Telecom VoIP and you look and sound more professional than relying on a mobile network.

At the end of the day the choice is all yours.