As cool as the iPhone is, there is an even more important revolution brewing: UMA: unlicensed mobile access. By "unlicensed" the carries mean WiFi and other wireless services operating in open spectrum.
The feature is an upgrade to wifi phones which only use wifi for internet access, not voice. UMA improves the wifi usage by including voice services: basically letting you use wifi to replace your cell link when its available. This is a bit of a sleeper .. not just does it save on minutes, it really rocks for travelers. If traveling abroad, and staying in a hotel with generally open wifi (no special login), you can call world wide on wifi with no charges. Not bad! This has got to be fussing Vonage, I'd think. Actually, the big win for many is just use of the cell phone at home: often home cellular signals are weak. But if you have wifi at home, your on the air! If the iPhone gets unlocked somehow so that it can use tmobile, it'll certainly improve its popularity. They are already betting that EDGE is good enough because wifi is reasonably plentiful now adays, thus the iPhone doesn't need the faster digital cellular services (which are not widely available anyway). Some links: T-Mobile UMA plan: http://wifinetnews.com/archives/007735.html David Pogue on Cellular phone status: http://tinyurl.com/3aquwy David Pogue on UMA: http://tinyurl.com/3agwer -- Owen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
