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GSM Standard for WiFi and Bluetooth Compatibility

Posted by michael on from the roam-wasn't-built-in-a-day dept.

sjbe writes "Fourteen of the major wireless service providers have released a set of Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) specifications permitting operation with licenced GSM and unlicensed (WiFi/Bluetooth) spectrum. So if we're lucky we might soon be able to use a GSM cell phone through a wireless base station and experience a seemless handoff to a cellular network once out of range."

2 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Return of the ISPs? by davejenkins · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Would this mean that ISPs who blanket metro areas could theoretically steal all the voice traffic currently going over cell networks?
    2. Would the ISPs have the bandwidth to carry all that?
    3. Would they want it?

    The reason I am thinking is that ATT/TimeWarner/Comcast/AOL would really like some vengeance against the cell providers, no?

    --

    davejenkins.com |

  2. Low power phones? by pradeepsekar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It would be nice to have phones using low power when a WiFi (or equiv) signal is available indoors, and switch to high power signal to the tower, thus extending battery life even further. It would also be interesting to see if this can make a difference to the long term effect of all the high power electromagnetic radiation that we are covering ourselves with!